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108 :: Aspects of Jaina Religion
Their ascetics cover their mouth with strips of cloth while speaking, otherwise they keep them in their hands. They stay in temples or in the specially reserved buildings known as upāśrayas. They collect food in their bowls from the śrāvakas or householders' houses and eat at their place of stay.
The Mūrtipūjaka sub-sect is also known by terms like (i) Pujerā (worshippers), (ii) Derāvasi (temple residents), (iii) Chaitya-vāsi (temple residents) and (iv) Mandira-märgi (temple goers).
The Mūrtipūjaka Svetāmbaras are found scattered all over India for business purposes in large urban centres, still they are concentrated mostly in Gujarat. (2) Sthānakavāsi
The Sthánakavāsi arose not directly from the Svetambaras but as reformers of an older reforming sect, viz., the Lonkā sect of Jainism. This Lonkā sect was founded in about 1474 A.D. by Lonkāśāha, a rich and well-read merchant of Ahmedabad. The main principle of this sect was not to practise idol-worship. Later on, some of the members of the Lonkā sect disapproved of the ways of life of their ascetics, declaring that they lived less strictly than Mahāvīra would have wished. A Lonkā sect layman, Viraji of Surat, received initiation as a Yatī, i.e., an ascetic, and won great admiration on account of the strictness of his life. Many people of the Lonkā sect joined this reformer and they took the name of Sthānakavāsis, meaning those who do not have their religious activities in temples but carry on their religious duties in places known as Sthānakas which are like prayer-halls.
The Sthānakavāsis are also called by terms as (a) Dhundhiyā (searchers) and (b) Sadhumārgis (followers of Sadhus, i.e., ascetics). Except on the crucial point of idol-worship, Sthānakavāsis do not differ much from other Svetāmbara Jainas and hence now-a-days they invariably call themselves as Svetāmbara Sthānakavāsis
However, there are some differences between the Sthānakaväsi and the Mūr
tāmbaras in the
