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Jaina Iconography
Anga. At the end of the far.inc, Bhadrabahu returned with his followers. They refused to accept the work of the Council and sternly disapproved the custom of wearing clothes, which the followers of Sthulabhadra had already adopted. Thus, according to the Svetambaras, the Ja na Canon was fixed by the Council of Pataliputra towards the end of the 4th Cent. B. C., whereas the Digambara books as available sofar prove that their age cannot go back further than Vikrama Year 49 or B. C. 8. Regarding the origin of the Digambaras as a sect the Svetambaras ascribe it to Sivabhūti,1 who started the heretical sect of the 'Bhotikas' in A. D. 83.
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The diverging doctrines of the two sects are in the main as follows:
(a) The Svetambaras decorate the image of the Tirthamkaras with earrings, necklaces, armlets, and tiaras of gold and jewels, the Digambaras leave their images naked and unadorned. (b) The Svetämbaras assert that there are 12 heavens and 64 Indras; the Digambaras maintain that there are 16 heavens, and 100 olympian monarchs.
(c) The Svetambaras allow their gurus to eat out of vessels, the Digambaras receive the food in their open hands from their disciples.
(d) The Svetämbaras consider the accompaniments of the wooden pots for bringing food etc. as alms etc., as essential to the character of an ascetic, the Digambaras do not admit their importance.
(e) The Svetämbaras credit the Angas or Scriptures to be the work of the immediate disciples of the Tirthankaras, the Digambaras, on the other hand, maintain that the leading authoritics of the Jaina Religion are the composition of subsequent teachers or Acaryas, their original Angas being lost.
(f) The Digambaras hold that salvation is not possible for a woman, although they have the order of nuns as well. The Svetämbaras have not, however, such a view.
(g) The Omniscient Being or a Kevalajñānī lives without food according to the Digambaras, who strongly maintain that a monk should not have anything, even clothes. The
1.
The story of Sivabhuti is given in Mrs. Stevenson's Heart of Jainism, p. 79
