Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 286

THE GENESIS OF THE DIGAMBARA-SVETĀMBARA SPLIT 279
Through mutual contact and consultation they settled the text of the eleven angas but could not codify the twelfth called dặstivāda because the only person who knew it was Bhadrabāhu and he was not available. With a view to taking down notes from him they sent a mission to him under Sthūlabhadra. At first he demurred to disclose the text but eventually gave out some parts of it to Sthūlabhadra. Through it Sthūlabhadra once changed himself into a lion whereupon the master reprimanded him and commissioned him not to reveal it to others lest they should misuse it. Thus the knowledge of it died out".
The Sthānakavāsí tradition affirms that when Sthūlabhadra and his companions codified the eleven angas and tried to piece together the twlefth missing one also in the absence of Bhadrabāhu the latter on his return felt annoyed and in a mood of anger declared the twelfth anga as hopelessly lost.2
The Digambaras reject this canonical tradition in toto and hold that all the ancient texts are irretrievably lost, only a portion of Drstivāda has survived in the form of the Șațkhandāgama and even in Kaşā yaprābhịta3.
In this way in the First Council of Pataliputra the dispute about conduct synchornized with the difference on the canon with the result that the clothed (Svetāmbara) and the naked (Digambara) branched off in different directions.
This doctrinal and literary difference is almost parallel in Buddhist and Jaina orders and may be the consequence of identical stimuli and motivations. Though links are missing, we can visualize a dialogue between the Buddhists and Jainas in which they reciprocated the influences of each other. A streak of light in this direction is the fourth schism of the Jaina order, 1. Tutthogälı Painnaya, Verses 714-802. 2. Margaret Stevenson, “Svetāmbaras', Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethices,
ed. James Hastings, Vol. XII, p. 123. 3. J. C. Jain, Pråksta Sahitya Ka Itihasa (in Hindi) pp. 272-73.