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50 Jaina Religion: Its Historical Journey of Evolution
succession. Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras have difference of opinion about the first successor of Mahāvīra. Digambara sect considers Gautama as the successor of Mahāvīra, while Svetāmbaras regard Sudharmā as Mahāvira's successor. The event of Gautama having been sent to the nearby village on a mission to give a spiritual awakening to one Devaśarmā Brahmin is also worth considering in this context. But the other possibility is that by the time of writing of Pitaka literature, the later controversy of Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras was linked to the event of Mahāvīra's nirvāņa. According to me, if there was any controversy at that time it could be among the Śramaņas of two kinds: those with clothes and those without clothes i.e. Acela and Sacela sects of Mahāvīra, because at the time of merger of disciples of Pārśva and Mahāvīra's Nirgranthasamgha, the samgha must have got divided into two classes, (i) those without clothes and (2) those with clothes. These two groups of Śramaņas might have been formed by Mahāvīra in accordance to the levels of conduct called Sāmāyika-cāritra and Chedopasthāpanā-cāritra. The cause of the conflict must have been only these two groups themselves. In my opinion, in the Buddhist tradition those who were referred to as white-robed śrāvakas were in fact Śramanas; because in Buddhist tradition even
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