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Divisions in Jainism :: 103
(vii) Food of Ascetics
The Svetāmbara monks collect their food from different houses while the Digambara monks take food standing and with the help of knotted upturned palms and in one house only where their sankalpa (preconceived idea) is fulfilled. (viii) Dress of Ascetics
The Svetāmbara monks wear white clothes, but the Digambara monks of the ideal nirgrantha type are naked. (ix) Possessions of Ascetics
The Svetāmbara ascetic is allowed to have fourteen possessions including loin-cloth, shoulder-cloth, etc. But the Digambara ascetic is allowed only two possessions, (viz., a pichhi a peacock-feather whisk-broom) and a kamandalu (a wooden water-pot).
4. The Digambara Sub-Sects
The division of the Jaina religion into two sects was only the beginning of splitting the religious order into various subsects. Each of the two great sects, viz., the Digambara sect and the Svetāmbara sect, got sub-divided into different major and minor sub-sects according to the differences in acknowledging or interpreting the religious texts and in the observance of religious practices. These major and minor sub-sects gradually sprang up for the most part on account of different interpretations the pontiffs put on the canonical texts from time to time and due to revolt or opposition by sections of people against the established religious authorities and the traditional religious rites and rituals.
The Digambara sect, in recent centuries, has been divided into the following sub-sects: (A) Major sub-sects:
(i) Bisapantha, (ii) Terāpantha, and (iii) Tāraṇapantha or Samaiyāpantha.
