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take off his clothes, nor has he to take the vow of renunciation, pronouncing the words “ I belong to nobody and nobody belongs to me.”.
The other difference. which may be considered the main difference between the two orders—the Niganthas or the followers of Pârsva and the Jains or the followers of Mahavira-lies in the fact that Pârgva's order had only four vows to take, while Mahavira increased the number and his followers has five vows to take; and further Mahavira required his monks to discard clothes altogether while the Nigantha monks were allowed to wear a piece of cloth for the sake of decency. It was mainly this order of Mahavira's to discard clothes altogether that caused afterwards, the two distinct sects of the Jains ; the Svetambaras and Degambaras, or the white clothed and unclothed (naked). This rigid rule of nakedness Mahavira very probably borrowed from Gosala, the son of
Makkhali the head of the order of Ajivika Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat www.umaragyanbhandar.com
