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56
Mahāvīra Era
Another discrepancy seems to exist in location. The main concentration of the Sveta mbaras is round about and within 500 Kilometres of Vallabhi. Most of the Jains in Gujrat and Western Rajasthan are Svetambaras, while most of the Jains of eastern Rajasthan, U. P. and the Jains of South India are Digambaras.
To make matters more clear we might say that the Chief points on which the two parties particularly do not agree are the insistence of the exchange of embryo of Mahāvīra, the beliefs that woman is not entitled to Maksha and that Kevalins do not take food and finally the complete disappearance of the ancient sacred literature of the Jainas.
The very names of the two divisions connote what is meant by them. The Digambaras maintained that absolute nudity is a necessary condition of saintship; the other division also admits that Mahāvira went about naked, but holds that the use of clothes does not impede the highest sanctity.
Anyhow if we agree with the gap of time that changed the conditions, attitudes and approaches of the followers of Pārsvanātha and Mahavira that Svetambaras are more akin to the former while Digambaras are nearer to Malāvīra though historically this might had been the vice-versa.
--Parmeshwer Solanki
