Jain Journal 1977 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 33

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JAIN JOURNAL
was usually not permanent in the evolution of Jaina Sangha, as the missions of Jaina Sanghas expanded to the four quarters of India with a missionary spirit to propagate the gospels of Jaina-dharma to the people of India in different ages,55 hence two previously isolated Jaina Sanghas or ganas or gacchas even if they continued at some particular regions at some particular periods of history, came into contact again and interproduced a new Sangha or gaccha.56
The various ganas and gacchas are the result of some kind of isolation and the accumulation of chance mutations of ascetic life of the Jaina monks.57 But since the inter-Sangha unproductivity had not developed, the differences disappeared when geographic isolation broke down between the two Sanghas.58 That they did not disappear, even more quickly and completely, was due largely to socio-religious taboos against intermingling being itself a form of isolation, e.g., the difference between the Svetambara and Digambara Sanghas or between two gacchas-Tapagaccha and Kharataragaccha due to the socio-religious taboos against intermingling gave rise to a form of isolation. It must be emphasized that a kind of natural selection operated upon the organization of Jaina Sangha as a whole rather than an individual trait.
One organization might have survived despite obviously disadvantageous character, while another might have been eliminated despite traits extremely advantageous for getting along in continuance.59 Jaina Sanghas that won the struggle for existence were usually not perfectly adapted to their environment, but had qualities the sum total of which rendered them a little better able to survive and reproduce new branches than their competitor Sanghas.
Preadaptations of Jaina Sanghas :
Because mutations (i.e. changes) in monastic life and conduct occurred at random, some resulted in characteristics either important or
86 See The Missions of Jaina Sangha', Jain Journal, July, 1975 and January 1976.
There appears to be the union of Punnata gaccha and Lata Vargata gaccha on the basis of the evidence of L. 63 of Pattavali, Citrasena, vide Bhattaraka Sampradaya,
p. 252. This union produced a new Lalabagada-Punnata gaccha. 57 E.g., Svetambara and Digambara Sanghas or Tapagaccha and Kharataragaccha
arose due to some kind of isolation and accumulation of chance mutations of ascetic life.
Most of the 84 gacchas died out perhaps in the struggle for existence. 58 E.g., Tapagaccha had the qualities the sum total of which rendered it a little better
able to survive and reproduce new branches than its competitors-Kharataragaccha and others.
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