History of Jaina Monachism

Author(s): S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute

Page 89

84
S. B. DEO
the other, and isolated groups insisting on the harder course of life may have well existed from the very beginning.
When the first council was held at Päțaliputra to compile the canon, a group, given to a more severe mode of life, appears to have repudiated it, perhaps due to the migration "to the coast" caused by the famine. Along with such a group there must have also existed others holding views which combined the opinions of both the sects in various ways. With their disappearance, in course of time, the two sects found themselves in sharp contrast and finally fell apart. By the very nature of the case, no precise date can be assigned to this process."
The quotation, though lengthy, brings out the real basis of the schism, and points out to the impossibility of fixing a tentative date for this schism which was the result of an evolution going on for a long time.
Regarding the history of Jainism in general, in the post-Mahāvīra period, it should be noted that "the spread of Jainism was more a case of successive migration than a continuous expansion."157 Hence it would be better for us to see its spread dynasty-wise after dividing India into two major divisions-North and South.
North India:
We have already seen that Mahavira's field of activity was the eastern part of northern India, and that he had connections with several kings of the traditional list of the sixteen Mahajanapadas.
The Sisunagas:
Out of these kings, the Jaina texts often refer to Seniya Bambhasara. This Seniya is to be identified with the Bimbisara of the Sisunaga dynasty. According to the Jaina tradition, his wife was Cellana who was the daughter of king Cetaka, the maternal uncle of Mahavira.
That this powerful king had come under the influence of Mahāvīra is amply borne out by his debate with a Jaina monk as given in the Uttaradhyayana158 which resulted in an event in which "the lion of kings.... together with his wives, servants, and relations, became a staunch believer in the Law." The Trisastisalākā10 also depicts an occasion in which the king together with his wife Cellana came to pay homage to Mahavira. Besides these, many of his other wives and sons joined the order of Mahavira.100
157. GHATGE, op. cit., p. 417.
158. Chapt. 20.
159. X, 6-11.
160. Nāyā., Chapt. 1; Anuttr. 1, 2; Atgḍ. 16-26; Bhag. 4, 6.