Jain Journal 1979 01

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

Page 31

JANUARY, 1979
monastic orders has been proved by the epigraphic evidences of the early Mathura inscriptions.
117
The existence of Jaina Sanghas under the spiritual leadership of the Parsvapatyas and Mahavira respectively was a historical fact. They were independent entities in the sense that each of them constituted by itself an intelligible field of historical study but at the same time they were the representatives of a single Sangha of the Nirgranthas. And they got united under the dynamic spiritual leadership of Mahavira. It appears that Jaina Sanghas in the post-Mahaviran period belonged by nature to the past as well as to the future. The evidential value of the post-Mahaviran Jaina Sanghas is conditional. We find them in conjunction with a Sangha, we take them as the corroborative evidence for the instance of apparentation and affiliation which the existence of Jaina Sangha established. The sketch of the expansion of Jaina Sangha in the post-Mahaviran period with its branches in different direction explains in geographical terms how the Jaina society came to be apparently separated to affiliated branches of Jaina Sangha. In terms of life and growth we can trace the differentiation of eastern and western branches of orthodox Jaina Sangha in the division and sub-division of their common chrysalis into different bodies-Sakhas and Kulas, etc. The division took rather more than five centuries to work itself out and the final result was the cumulative effect of some crises in Jaina Sangha leading to schisms and final division of it into the Svetambara and Digambara sects.
These two sects again evolved into many branches and sub-branches in the Acarya period within the four quarters of India with amazing speed upto the present day. Although it is difficult to establish direct links among various Jaina monastic orders in India at the present state of our knowledge about their origin, growth and development, nevertheless, it may be said with an objective approach to the history of Jaina Sangha that it has undergone gradual orderly changes since its birth with the march of time at different times and places in India. It has descended from a simple organization in North India by gradual modifications in successive periods and branched off into many divisions of monastic order. The process of evolution of Jaina Sangha has not ceased but is occurring more rapidly to-day than in many of the past ages. In the last few hundred years many Jaina monastic orders have become extinct and many others have arisen. Although the process is usually too gradual to be observed, there are notable example of evolutionary change with the time of recorded history. Jaina Sangha of Mahavira had expanded and its members multiplied with amazing speed and by the twentieth century its branches are strikingly different from the original North Indian Jaina Sangha.