Compendium of Jainism

SR No.: 001202
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T K Tukol, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Prasaranga Karnatak University Dharwar
Publication Year: 1980
Total Pages: 352
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Philosophy
File Size: 17 MB

Page 63

AFTER MAHAVIRA AND THE SCHISM
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None of these two versions has any historical support. It appears to me that the divisions in the community must have been gradual and must have assumed a definite shape at some period. After the departure of Bhadrabāhū Śrutakevalin to the South, Sthūlabhadra and his disciples remained in the North. There is little doubt that there were Digambaras in the North at the time of the invasion of India by Alexander (327-326 B. C.) as the Greek historians have referred to them as gymosophists, that is, naked Philosophers. There appear to have been some monks during the time of Pārsva who wore a loin cloth. Mahävira himself adhered to the cult of nudity. Hence the practice of wearing a loin cloth did not assume any importance in his time. P. Bechardas, a śvetāmbara Pandit expresses the view that it was only after the Nirvāņa of Jambūsvāmi that laxity in conduct must have started, departing from the rigorous rules laid down by Mahāvira and that the poison tree of division seems to have started growing.
The monks staried using white clothes for covering part of their bodies and possessing some wooden pots. The practice of adorning the idols of Tīrthankaras with gold and diamond ornaments and silk cloib came into vogue. S. Gopalan holds the view that the division became permanent in 83 A. D.6 Hermann Jacobi opines that the sect of Ardhaphalakas developed in 80 A. D. into the Svetāmbara sect and observes : “It is possible that the separation of the Jaina church took place gradually, an individual development going on in both the groups living at a great distance from one another, and that they became aware of their mutua) difference about the end of the 1st century A. D. But the difference is small in their articles of faith."7 J. L. Jaini holds similar views : The division of the Jaina community into two sects of Svetāmbaras, “whiterobed" and Digambaras, “sky-robed”, i. e. naked, took place according to their concurrent testimony, 609 years after Mabāvira, i. e. about 80 A. D. But in germ it existed as early as the time of the First Council. 8