Jain Journal 1978 07

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

Page 31

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large number of individual monastic orders.10 It is now possible to reconstruct fairly accurately what this ancient Jaina monastic orders looked like.
Archaeological remains of early Jaina monastic orders found at Mathura, in Bengal, Kalinga and South India are slightly different but similar enough to be grouped together as primitive Jaina monastic orders. This group which includes Nirgrantha Gaccha, Kotika Gaccha etc. descended from some primitive Jaina Sangha in the post-Mahavira period. In the Acarya period there have been found also some Jaina Sanghas which used both stone and other hard materials for the monasteries.11 They were considerably more advanced than the primitive ones for shelter of wandering monks, probably they were the descendant monastic orders of the early Sanghas. Modern Jaina Sangha as a whole includes not only all the living Jaina monastic orders-the Svetambaras and the Digambaras, but also some extinct ones, e.g. some of eighty four Gacchas of the Svetambaras and some of the Digambara Jaina Sanghas. The idea that modern Jaina Sanghas appeared relatively recently in the late fifteenth Century A. D. is no longer valid, for the antiquity of some Gacchas or Ganas like Nirgrantha Gaccha, Kotika Gaccha, etc. is now authenticated by the literary and epigraphic records.12 So it may be inferred that some modern Jaina Sanghas were contemporary of other former Jaina Sanghas and perhaps antidated them.13 The centres of modern Jaina Sanghas particularly of the Svetambaras, appear to have been in Western realm14 of Jaina Sanghas which spread out in different directions. In the course of evolution they have not increased greatly in number and stature. Their monastic structures have become less massive. The evolutionary trend toward greater intelligence and learning made them less dependent upon their sheer strengh of number15 for survival. They have begun to
10 lbid.
11 All the Jaina monasteries are made of stones and other hard materials as is evidenced from Mathura rims and all the vasathis of South India. Vide Jaina Silalekha Sangraha, I, IV.
12 See Kalpasutra Sthaviravali; Nandisutra Pattavali; Pattavali Samuccaya, Pt. I; Early Mathura Inscriptions, Jaina Silalekha Sangraha, pt. II, pp. 11-53.
e.g. Tapagaccha, the sixth evolutionary form of Nirgranthagaccha while initiating monks tells them that their Gana is Kotika, Sakha is Vajri and Kula is Candra, that is to say, the root of the present living Tapagaccha lies in that of Kotika Gana, etc. as mentioned in Kalpasutra Sthaviravali and Early Mathura Inscriptions.
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JAIN JOURNAL
14 Rajasthan and Gujarat.
15 Tapagaccha monks live in upasrayas.