Jain Journal 2004 01

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

Page 46

S.R. BANERJEE: UNDERSTANDING JAIN RELIGION
171
example, the Digambaras say that Mahāvīra did not wear any clothes, whereas the Svetămbaras insist that he did. But if you see the statues of Mahāvīra belonging to the period from 1st centuriy B.C. down to 131h14th centuries A.D. they are all naked. So this becomes a point in favour of the Digambaras. Another difference is that the Svetāmbaras believe that women can also get renunciation or nirvāņa, but, according to the Digambaras, women cannot get nirvana at all. According to the Svetāmbaras, Mahāvīra was married and had a daughter before he renounced the world, but, according to the Digambaras, Mahāvīra was not married at all. The canonical literature of the Svetāmbaras is 45 in number which are not accepted by the Digambaras who have three different texts divided into 45 books. The Digambaras place the date of Mahāvīra between 659 and 587 B.C., whereas the Svetāmbaras place Mahāvīra between 599 and 527 B.C.
In course of time, there arose many Sanghas, groups of people, in the South. According to the Digambara tradition, the Müla-sangha (the original community) was divided into four groups, such as, Nandisangha, Sinha-sangha, Deva-sangha, and Sena-sargha, -- all groups that propagated the Jaina culture and the names normally took the name of the person who founded the Sanghas. Again, in contrast to the above four sanghas of the Mülasangha a few more sects came up and they were-Yapaniya-sangha, Drāvida-sangha, Mathurā-sangh and Kasthā-sangha. Out of these sanghas, in modern times, the Digambara sects are-Bispanthis, Terapanthis, Gumānpanthis and so on. In the north Jainism flourished from Magadh in Bihar to Rajasthan. Gujarat, Mahārāştra, Bengal, Orissa, Madhya-Pradeśa, UttaraPradesa, Punjab and Kashmir. Just as in the South we have many Sanghas of the Digambaras, so also in the North, we have many gacchas of the Svetāmbaras, and these are Kharataragaccha, Tapāgaccha, Upakeśagaccha, Pārsvacandragaccha, Ancalagaccha, Paurņanāyakagaccha, Agamikagaccha and so on. Latter on, there evolved Lumpākagaccha, Sthānakavāsīs, Terāpanthis, Veşadharas and Vandhyas.
For over 2000 years, different philosophers in India have propagated Jainism in different ways. We will, therefore, talk of Jainism with this historical background. What are the books upon which all our