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108 Jaina Religion: Its Historical Journey of Evolution
in fleecing money from the masses in order to make themselves richer and stronger. Lokāśāha got a chance to study Jaina Agamas when he was copying them, as his handwriting was beautiful, he saw that there was a wide gap between principles and practice of the conduct of Jaina monks. This wide gap of principles and practice in the life of the monks was raising a number of questions in the consciousness of the people. It was a good opportunity for Lokāśāha to evolve a religious tradition with spiritual element and without a ritualistic baggage.
What was the state of Jaina samgha prior to Lokāśāha? We have briefly discussed this before. Prior to Lokāśāha in 141-15th century Jaina samgha was mainly divided in three main sectsDigambara, Śvetāmbara and Yāpanīya, Even in this the Yāpanīya sect that came into existence around 54 century AD was on the threshold of extinction. Except for one or two Bhattāraka seats it did not have a proper existence. Thus, basically only two traditions Svetāmbara and Digambara were in existence. As to the question of Digambara tradition, monks and nuns did not retain their identity; only Bhattārakas were prominent in that period. But they (Bhattārakas) had mainly become
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