Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

SR No.: 006569
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 242
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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Jain Philosophy in Historical Outline
incidentally refer to various branches, schools and families of the Jain community from which we learn the names of teachers who under different titles acted as spiritual leaders of these subdivisions, and of the monks and nuns who practised austerities under their leadership. The inscriptions also mention the names of the vast number of pious lay people, both male and female, including kings and nobles who supported the Jain church by providing the monks and nuns with their requirements. But so far as the total history of Jainism is concerned, we get only a bare outline from the inscriptions and nothing more. Jarl Charpentier is quite correct when he says : “While we possess materials which enable us to construct a fairly clear biography of the prophet, and while we have at least such information concerning the events which preceded and were contemporary with the beginning of the great separation between Svetāmbaras and Digambaras... the following period is almost totally devoid of any historical record. And this is not the only blank in Jain ecclesiastical history. Scarcely more is known concerning the fate of the Jain church during the early centuries of our era down to the time of the great council of Valabhi, in the fifth or at the beginning of the sixth century AD, when the canon was written down in its present form.'1
After the death of Mahāvīra, the leadership of all the four orders of Jain community-monks, nuns, laymen and lay women-fell on his disciple Indrabhūti Gautama who was the head of the Jain church for a period of twelve years. He was succeeded by Sudharman who also held office for another twelve years. The oldest list of these 'tribal heads' (gañadharas) is found in the Kalpasūtra which begins with Sudharman and ends with the thirty-third patriarch Sāņdilya or Skandila. In most of the cases their names and gotras are given, but there is also an expanded list from the sixth, Bhadrabāhu, to the fourteenth, Vajrasena, which adds more details, viz. the disciples of each patriarch and of the sects and branches (Gana, Kula and Sākhā) originating with them. We have also later lists of teachers (Gurvāvali, Pastāvali) of different sects (Gacchas, etc.) which give a summary account from Mahävīra down to the founder of the sect in question, and then a more detailed one of the line of descent from the latter downwards, and with particulars of subsequent heads of the sect called Śrīpūjya. These lists are useful so far as the later and regional
*CHI, I, p. 151. 2SBE, XXII, pp. 286-295.