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SagarmalJain: How appropriateisthe PropositionofNcodigambara School?
Neo-Digambara sect? As ample literary and inscriptional evidences are available in respect of Yāpania, Svetāmbara, and Digumbara (Nirgrantha) sccts, and they can, therefore, be accepted as sects, but the Neo-Digambara sect was neither ever there nor is it there at present, and so, on what basis can we accept it as a sect? I have clearly proved in my book, Jaina Dharma Ka Yāpuniya Sampradāya, that as far as Umāsvāti, Vimalasūri and Siddhascna Divākara arc concerned, they are from a period prior to the clear division of the Jaina tradition into Yapaniya, Svetamburu, and Digambara (Nirgruntha) sects. The facts mentioned in their works tally with the conditions of the Jaina Sanghu in the first-second centuries AD, when many differences of conduct had stepped in but the sectarian division had not come in. We do get the inscriptional and archaeological proofs about the pre-sectariandivision period in the Mathura inscriptions and iconographs. These are indicative of the situation obtaining prior to the coming into being of the Svetāmbaras and the Yāpaniyas. They cannot be called the Svetāmbaras, Digambaras or the Yāpaniyas. Svetāmbara, Digambara, and Yūpaniya grew into sects some two to three centuries later. The clear mentions of the Svetambara (
White-clad). Digumbara (Nirgrantha or Sky-clad) and Yūpaniya orders are found from the 5th century only and not carlicr. Dr. Hamna Nagarajaiah's contention that Sīlānka and Hemacandra represent the whitc-clad sect while Gunabhadra and Puspadanta represent the sky-clad sect is not a matter of any controversy. However, his contention that Ravisena, Punnāta Jinasena and Harişeņa were not Yapanīyus but Neo-Digambaras, cannot be accepted in the absence of any proofs. On careful study of the works of Ravisena, Punnāța Jinasena and Harişcna, we find that many of their beliefs were quite close to the beliefs of the Yüpaniya Sangha. In my view, the three works referred to by the learned scholarPadmucaritru of Ravi sena, Harivamsapurāņa of Punnäta Jinasena, and Brhatkathākosa of Harişeņa actually appear to be of the Yāpaniya tradition. It is so because many of their beliefs are different from both, the Digambaras and the Svetambaras, such a sect cannot be any one other than the Yāpaniva sect. To call them by the name of Neo
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