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Lord Mahâvira
with them.
Interestingly nudity was discouraged for nuns by both the schools. 62 According to the Svetambaras Sivabhuti founded a sect called Bodiya at Rathavirapura, about 699 years after the demise of Mahâvîra. We know how he started nudity among men but he did not allow his sister Uttara to observe it (infra). Kundakunda presents the Digambara view in this matter thus: “Women are for bidden from accepting severe type of asceticism, such as nakedness because they are constitutionally unfit: there is a growth of subtle living beings in their organ of generation, between their breasts, in their navel and armpits; their mind is fickle and devoid of purity; they have monthly courses and they cannot concentrate undisturbed.” So he prescribes that nuns should take meals once and have a garment which they retain even when they take meals. Thus Kundakunda does not exclude women from entering the Order but he prescribes moderate and less rigorous rules for them than were prescribed for monks. The Svetambaras however were more liberal to women than the Digambaras because they thought that women could get liberation in this very birth while the Digambaras believed that women cannot get liberation without taking birth as men.
But in spite of these differences the texts of both the schools present almost the same monastic atmosphere. Even nudity is prescribed not only in the Diagambara texts but also in those of the Svetambara, though their commentators declare that it was meant for the Jinakappi monks alone. Relation with Brahmanism and Buddhism
It is the usual practice of Hindu philosophers to classify darsanas (philosophies) into two group:-Vaidic and non-Vaidic, otherwise known as astika darsanas and nastika darsanas. Under the former heading, usually Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Mimansa and Vedanta are included while under the latter come the Jaina, Buddhist and Charvaka. It is but a truism to say that the Jaina darsana is outside the Vaidic fold, though it is also held by some Jainas that the Vedas, at least the portions that are now lost, advocated ahimsa, and the differences between the two arose when there was difference of opinion in the interpretation of the Vedas, as illustrated in the story of King Vasu found in Jaina
