Lord Mahavira and His Times

Author(s): Kailashchandra Jain
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas

Page 80

Lord Mahavira and His Times
thousand monks into nine regular schools called Ganas, placing each school under the headship of one of his chief disciples or Ganadharas. The leading Ganadhara had five hundred monks under him, but some of the others had only three hundred or two hundred and fifty. These Ganadharas were to guide and instruct separate groups of Nirgranthas.
Besides the fourteen thousand monks, a great multitude of women followed Mahāvira, and of these some thirtysix thousand actually renounced the world and became nuns. At their head was Chandanā, a first cousin of Mahāvīra's, or, as other accounts have it, his aunt.
Mahāvīra's third Order consisted of laymen numbering about one hundred and fiftynine thousand with Sarkha Sataka at their head. These laymen were householders who could not actually renounce the world but they at least could observe the five small vows called anuvrata. The similarity of their religious duties, differing not in kind but in degree, brought about the close union of laymen and monks. Most of these regulations meant to govern the conduct of laymen were intended apparently to make them participate, in a measure and for some time, in the merits and benefits of monastic life without obliging them to renounce the world altogether. “The genius for organization which Mahāvīra possessed". S. STEVENson rightly observes, "is shown in nothing more clearly than in the formation of this and the order of laymen. These two organizations gave the Jaina a root in India that the Buddhists never obtained, and that root firmly planted amongst the laity enabled Jainism as we have seen, to withstand the storm that drove Buddhism out of India.”l
Their fourth and last Order consisted of devout laywomen or Srāvikās numbering about three hundred and fiftyeight thousand with Sulasā and Revati as their heads. Their household duties prevented their becoming nuns but still they served the ascetics in many ways. The number of members in the four Orders of the Jaina Community is exaggerated, but these is little doubt that Mahāvíra converted a large number of people to Jainism. 1. Ssns. p. 67.