Jaina Community a Social Survey

Author(s): Vilas Sangve
Publisher: Popular Book Depot Bombay

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Religious Divisions in the Jaina Community
Digambaras, against using clothes and it followed the rules and regulations of Digam bara ascetics38. Neither its literature39 nor any of its followers is existing today. It appears that this Sam gha was a connecting link between the Digambaras and Svetambaras or probably it was a solution to iron out the differences between the two sects. But this solution was not, it seems, accepted by the people and as such it had to remain as a separate Samgha and vanish within a short period for want of following. 40 Afterwards no attempt worth the name was made in the long history of the Jaina Church to cement the outstanding differences between the sects and among the sub-sects within a sect. On the contrary it is a pity that more importance was attached to small differences of practice and this ultimately gave rise to various Samghas, Gachachhas, etc. The main difference between the Mula Samgha and Kashtha Samgha of Digambaras lies in the fact that while the ascetics of the former use the bunch of peacock feathers for warding off insects, those of the latter use a tuft of cow's tail's hair. There was a third section which did away with the use of a bunch or tuft and hence it was called 'Niḥpichchhika Samgha.' Even though the differences were meagre, the Mula Sam gha declared the other two Sam ghas as Jainābhasa, i. e., false Jaina Samghas. Exactly on the same lines various Gachchhas like Kharatara, Anchala, Paurṇimiyaka, Kaṭuka, etc. arose among the Śvetämbaras due to little differences and there was practically constant rivalry among them. Books like Kupakshakausikasahasrakiraṇa, Tapomatakuṭṭana, Añchalamatadalana, indicate this spirit of rivalry.41 Thus it will be found that there is nothing like unity in the Jaina Church but on the contrary there is a vivid tendency to magnify the differences and to split up the Jaina Church into small sections spread all over India. Moreover there was not during the last 2000 years even a single powerful personality in the Jaina community who could iron out the differences between the two main sects which insist more on their mutual differences. It goes without saying that this unusually large number of religious sections or divisions in a small Jaina community can hardly serve as an incentive for unity in that community.