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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
545 The rise of numerous gacchas also tends to show that Jaina monachism was active in the medieval period.
DIGAMBARA SANGHAS:
After the migration of Bhadrabāhu to the south, the Digambaras settled more or less permanently in south India as well. In course of time, a number of Sanghas and Ganas arose in its Church,
The following were the various Church units as are referred to by the Digambara epigraphs :
ARYA SANGHA :
It is mentioned in an epigraph belonging to the eighteenth year of the reign of king Uddyotakesarin (c. 10th cent. A.D.) in the Navamuni cave inscription at Udaygiri hill in Orissa.242
DEVA SANGHA :
It is one of the subdivisions of the Mula Sangha brought about by Arhadbalin.243
DRAVIDA or DRAMILA SANGHA :
According to Devasena, the author of Darśanasāra, this Sangha244 was formed by Vajranandin, a disciple of Pūjyapāda, in the year 536 of the Vikrama Era at Madurā.
According to SALETORE, "the establishment of the Dravida Sangha at Madurā was the work of Vajrananrlin in the last quarter of the 9h or in the first quarter of the 10th cent. A.D."245
Epigraphs, mostly of the post-ninth century A.D. period, refer to it and it seems to have spread over Karnatak and Mysore.246
As the name suggests, the Sangha took its name after the region in which it was formed.
242. E.I., XIII, p. 166. 243. E.C., II, 254.
244. J.A., XIII, ii, pp. 30-31; GLASENAPP, op. cit., p. 365 gives the date as V.S. 526. See also UPADHYE, Prv., Intr. p. XXI.
245. Med. Jain. p. 238.
246. E.C., IV, Ng. 100, 103; V, Belur, 17, 138, 235, BULL. DCRI.—69
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