________________
106
JAIN JOURNAL
Yapaniyasangha, Kasthasangha, Dravidasangha 60, etc. and (3) Modern group represented by Taranapanthin Sampradaya61, Terapanthin Sampradaya 62, Bisapanthin Sampradaya63, and Tolapanthin Sampradaya64. All of these Digambara monastic orders have the same norms and forms of monastic life with some minor variations in asceticism and ecclesiasticism.
The group of old would Jaina Sanghas-Svetambara and Digambaras is large, including various Sanghas, and ganas, etc. of different areas of Jaina mission realm. All these monastic orders tended to assemble at one centre or more. The second group of Jaina Sanghas included ganas, kulas, sakha, gacchas, anvayas, balis, etc. Modern Jaina Sanghas are more like the Sanghas of the mediaeval period than other early Sanghas and ganas, as they evolved out of the mediaeval Sanghas, but they are different enough in monastic characters to be placed in a separate group. The difference between the other groups and modern Jaina Sanghas are rather small in the proportion of parts correlated with one adaptation for a city life rather than a country or rural life.
Almost every organ of Jaina Sangha of the middle age is repeated in modern Jaina Sangha or gaccha. Some of the monastic characters that distinguish modern Jaina monastic orders are : (1) top-heavy ecclesiastical organization 65, (2) the leading part of the monastic order has a prominent linking bridge between the monks and laities--the two eyes of it, (3) modern Jaina monastic orders have got special structural features 66, (4) but the monastic orders of the mediaeval period have a little of them, (5) modern Jaina Sanghas' base is in line with the other Sanghas and sects, etc. 67, (6) the base of modern Jaina Sanghas is adapted for bearing the weight of the entire Jaina Sangha, society being arched length-wise and cross-wise in the whole society, (7) modern Jaina Sanghas
* See Darsanasara of Jinasena, 26 for Dravidasangha; JSS, Pt. II, Nos. 166,
178, etc. "1 See Jainism in Rajasthan, p. 92. 63 Ibid.
3 Ibid. p. 93. 44 Ibid. 5 As it consists of Acarya, Upadhyaya, etc. * It is clearly embodied in the constitution of Jaina Sangha defining the execu
tive, Judiciary, and financial features, inernal and external relations, monastic
jurisprudence, etc. 67 Modern Jaina Sanghas maintain external good relations with the Hindu and
Buddhist Sanghas by inviting the Buddhist and other monks to their Assembly and Seminar, for instance, Acarya Tulsi invited two Buddhist monks to participate in Jaina Seminar and Religious Assembly held at Delhi in 1974.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
