________________
462
S. B. DEO ground) 396 and placing the dead in a particular direction,397 etc.-are the same as those we have noted from the Brhatkalpabhāşya of the Svetāmbaras.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
From the survey of the items of Digambara monk-life of the postcanonical period, the following observations may be noted:
(1) From the literary sources, it may be said that the fundamentals of monastic life remained unchanged.
(2) Literary sources reveal but a few ganas, etc. as compared with those in the epigraphs.
(3) Nudity was still advocated. But the Viśvapanthis advocated wearing of clothing due, it may be granted, to pressure from society.
(4) Along with the Svetāmbaras, even the Digambaras had a schism which did not believe in images of the Jinas.
(5) Digambara monks enriched the field of Kannada and Tamil literature, and thus made a good effort of completely associating themselves with the local conditions.
(6) Their Bhāndāras have played an important part in preserving the literary wealth.
(7) Various 'mudrās' and 'āsanas' seem to have crept in the practice of meditation and 'vandanā.'
(8) Even though fasting and other practices were continued, there seems to have arisen a class of the 'mathapatis' who pretended to be monks, and had, in reality, gone astray from the path of moral discipline,
(9) Inspite of the attempts carried on by the leaders of both the parties, the Svetāmbaras and the Digambaras still remain distinct from each other, and they still have difference of opinion regarding nudity, the liberation of women, the nude images of the Jinas, the transfer of the womb of and the marriage of Mahāvīra, and the intake of food by the Kevalin, besides many other details regarding the history of the Church.
396. Ibid. 1974ff. 397. Ibid. 1970ff.
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