Jain Rup Mandan

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Abhinav Publications

Page 19

6
Jaina-Rupa-Maṇḍana
Pārsva, who called himself a Samana-Niggantha, placed his disciple at the head of the gaccha, and went to practise the Jinakalpa outside the town. The ascetics of the order of Municandra are said to have indulged in activities which, according to the doctrines of Mahavira, constituted preliminary sin; they put on clothes (sapariggaha) and also practised the Jinakalpa.25
Nudity was thus the highest ideal and specially those who practised Jinakalpa were required to have no parigraha whatsoever.
In the early days both the Jinakalpa and the Sthavirakalpa monks were allowed to remain in the Jaina Samgha, and there were no strict rules about one's wearing clothes or going about naked. The Acaranga says: 'if a naked monk thought he could bear the pricking of grass, cold and heat, stinging of flies and mosquitos, or any other painful thing then he could leave the privies uncovered."26 But (when the number of articles in a monk's equipment increased and) when the monks began staying more and more among people, then he could cover the privies with a katibandha. In later stages the katibandha (loincloth) was replaced by a Colapatta.27
Arya Mahägiti, a contemporary of Samprati (the grandson of the Mauryan emperor Aśoka), was an exponent of the Jina-kalpa, while his contemporary Arya Suhasti, teacher of Samprati, followed the Sthavira-kalpa. Naturally Suhasti had a larger following. But the Jina-kalpa possibly lingered on upto the age of Arya Rakşita. When Arya Rakşita initiated his family, his father was unwilling to discard all clothes due to modesty. Later on after great persuasion he accepted a kaḍipaṭṭa.29
The division of the Jaina community into two sects, according to the Svetambara accounts, is ascribed to Śivabhūti, a pupil of Arya Kapha, in the city called Rathavirapura. Koḍinna and Koṭṭivira were Sivabhūti's first pupils.30
The Digambaras relate another legend according to which, during the reign of Candragupta (Maurya) in Ujjain, sage Bhadrabahu predicted a twelve years' famine. At this Viśākhācārya, a disciple of Bhadrabahu, led the Jaina Samgha to the Punnāta kingdom in the south, while Bhadrabahu and others migrated to Sindhu region. In course of time when all returned to Ujjain, famine was still raging though not so acute, and the monks were allowed to use a piece of garment (held before their privies) (ardhaphalakam puraḥ krtva) while going out for alms (compare Fig. 21 of the Tablet of Homage from Kankali Tila, Mathura, depicting the venerable ascetic Kanha; and Figs. 12, 15 showing on pedestals figures of Jaina ascetics holding such cloth-pieces). When the famine was over all the monks did not follow their elders' advice of reverting to nudity, and some retained the piece of cloth, which brought about the schism in Jainism dividing the Samgha into the Digambara and the Svetambara sects. The earliest available literary source for this Digambara legend is the Brhat-kathākośa of Hariṣeņa (v.s. 989-932 A.D.),31 while the earliest source for the Svetambara account of the schism is the Uttaradhyayana Niryukti (of Bhadrabahu II, not later than c. 500 A.D.).32 According to the Svetämbaras, the origin of the Botikas (Digambaras) took place 609 years after Mahavira's Nirvāņa, that is, in (609-527=) 82 A.D.33
Introduction of Jainism in the South certainly dates from at least the first two centuries before the Christian era and even earlier as is evident from the Tamil Classics Manimekhalai and Silappadikaram,34 and from inscribed stone beds for monks in caves (e.g. the Sittaṇravasal Jaina cave) and caverns mainly in the Tamil Nadu, the inscriptions being in what is now called Tamil-Brahmi (that is, in Brahmi script and in Tamil language), 34" A Svetambara account shows that it was the Mauryan ruler Samprati who first patronised or facilitated the migration of the Jaina monks to the Daksiņāpatha, to the land of the Andhras and to other places further south.35 It is indeed difficult to say which of the two-the Digambara or the Svetambara-legends regarding the schism is correct. In fact, the differences between the two sects grew gradually36 and the final separation came later. Even Harisena refers to a third big sect of the Jainas. The sect was known as the Yapaniya sect which is referred as Yavanika in the Hoskote copperplate inscription of Pallava Simhavişņu. The Yapaniyas, unlike the Digambaras, believed in the authenticity of the Svetambara Canons but retained the practice of nudity 37 It seems that they also believed in the possibility of mukti (emancipation) for females.
The first known archaeological evidence of the name of the Svetambara sect, discovered hitherto, is the grant of the Kadamba ruler Siva Mrget avarman,28 who, issuing a village grant in his fourth regnal