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92 Jaina Religion: Its Historical Journey of Evolution
for the improvements in their code of conduct and practices.
Jaina religion is a dynamic one. It has accepted changes in its system of rules and regulations in accordance to changes in time place and circumstances while retaining and protecting its basic tenets. Thus, it was nothing new for Jainadharma to have various significant changes by different ācāryas of various Jaina sects; it was rather an outcome of its basic revolutionary vision of thought. Even before Lokāśāha many events of such revolutions in conduct-related practices took place. Here, we are presenting a brief account of that
As has been indicated earlier Lord Mahāvīra did not accept the code of conduct of Pārsvanātha in its entirety. It is true, that there is no such difference in the basic principles of Pārsvanātha and Mahāvīra but their conduct-related rules and their systems have been different, which have been indicated at a number of places in the Jaina canons. In Mahāvīra's tradition the synthesis of code of conduct of both of these extraordinary men is first of all found in the form of sāmāyika-cāritra and chedopasthāpaniya-căritra. Thus, as a consequence a two level regulatory system was created in the code of conduct of monks. This system established
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