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RIVAL SECTS As has been said before, India was during Mahavira's age passing through a period of unusual religious enthusiasm. The country as a whole, and in particular the eastern provinces, were bristling with conflicting views and rival schemes. Numerous individual philosophers and religious sects were preaching their doctrines, and the relations between them were not always of the happiest kind. The animosities of the time may be well illustrated by the remark made by Mahavira's newly ordained lay disciple, Ananda, in Uvāsagada são sūtra; “Truly, Revered Sir, it does not befit me from this day forward to praise and worship any man of a heretical community, or any of the devas of a heretical community, or any of the objects of reverence to them; or without being first addressed by them, to address them or converse with them; or to give or supply them with food or drink except it be by the command of the King or the community or any powerful man or deva or one's own elders or by the exigencies of living." Even the Acărānga sūtra explicitly says that "to friendly or hostile heretics one should not give alms, drink, dainties and spices......por do them service......" The insistence on the necessity of right faith is indicative of the same thing. Faith has been held to be easier to obtain by those who, though not versed in the sacred doctrines, are not acquainted with other systems and hold no wrong doctrines. Among the eight principles on which the excellence of faith rests, the most important have been mentioned as the absence of preference for heretics and the non-shaking of right belief at the prosperity of heretical sects. Classification of creeds :
The account of philosophical schools mentioned in the Jain canonical literature refers to three hundred and sixty three different creeds divided into four great schools-Kriyavada, comprising 180 different doctrines;
Akriyavāda 84, Ajñānavāda 67, and Vinayavāda 32. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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