History of Jaina Monachism

SR No.: 001727
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute
Publication Year: 1956
Total Pages: 616
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Principle, & History
File Size: 12 MB

Page 88

HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
Modern Scholars :
(i) HOERNLE believes that the idea of Digambaratva may be due to the influence of the Ājīvikas who were also the advocates of nudity.153
(ii) Mrs. STEVENSON holds-"The probability is that there had always been two parties in the community: the older and weaker section, who wore clothes and dated from Pārsvanātha's time, and who were called Sthavira-kalpa (the spiritual ancestors of the Svetāmbaras); and the Jinakalpa, or puritans, who kept the extreme letter of the law as Mahāvira had done, and who are the forerunners of the Digambaras."154
Conclusions :
The conclusions can best be summarised in the words of Dr. GHATGE.155
“The traditional accounts of the origin of the split are puerile and the outcome of sectarian hatred.156 They, however, agree in assigning it to the end of the first century A.D., which is quite likely. The evidence of the literary writings of the Svetambaras and early sculptures goes to show that most of the differences between the two sects were of slow growth and did not arise all at one time.
Attempts to explain the origin of this split are mainly based upon only one divergent practice, that of wearing a white robe or going naked, which has given the two sects their names. The split is sometimes traced to differences between the practices of Mahāvīra and his predecessor Pārsva, or the more austere life of his pupil Gosāla, or to the events caused by the great famire in Magadha which occurred at the time of Bhadrabāhu and Candragupta, causing the migration of a section of the community to the South. In all probability, Gosāla's teaching has nothing to do with this later division and is firmly repudiated by both sects. The teachings of Mahavira and Pārsva on the use of clothes and the practice of nudity were somehow reconciled in the lifetime of Mahāvīra. Orthodox teaching allowed option, producing two modes of behaviour known as Jinakalpa and Sthavirakalpa, but some sections of the community may have preferred the one to
153. ERE, 1, p. 267: ELLIOT in 'Hinduism and Buddhism' (p. 112) says--"Nudity as a part of asceticism was practised by several sects in the time of Mahävira, but it was also reprobated by others (including all Buddhists) who felt it to be barbarous and unedifying".
154. Heart of Jainism, p. 79; also JACOBI, SBE, xlv, pp. 119-29; P. L. VAIDYA, Uvasaya", notes.
155. Op. cit., pp. 416-17. 156. See, SHAH, op. cit., p. 70.