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How appropriate is the proposition of Neo-Digambaras..
: 183
Svetāmbara, it is Yāpanīya sect. Yāpanīyas are Digambara only as they support unclothed clergy. I am pained to see as to why the Digambara scholars frown at them by considering them as different. If they have no objection to Drāvida and Māthurasamgha and their literature, which are mentioned as Quasi-Jaina Samghas (Jainābhāsa), if they have no objection to accept the literature of the Bhatýārakas as their own, then what stops them to accept Yāpanīyas as Digambara? Why do they feel the need for coining phrases like Neo-Digambara for them? Actually, Yāpanīya is that original tradition from which the traditions of the Digambaras and the Svetāmbaras have developed, and which bridges the gap between the two. The concept of NeoDigambaras will only go to deepen the dividing line between the two whereas the Yāpaniya tradition will bring us nearer to each other, which is the need of the day.
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