Notes on Modern Jainism

Author(s): Mrs Sinclair Stevenson
Publisher: Oxford

Page 23

RISE OF THE JAINA SECTS. The history of Jainism subsequent to the death of Mahāvira is not marked by many outstanding events,
excepting the great schism which divided Svetambara and the order into the white clothed SvetämDigambara.
bara and the nude or "sky clothed ” Digambara. A great famine arose in 310 B, C., some two centuries after the death of Mahāvira, in Magadha (Bihār, and, as sometimes happens in India at the present day, under pressure of the famine a great part of the population emigrated, amongst them Bhadrabāhu, the then head of the Jaina community, and a number of his people. These went to Southern India, and a certain Sthulabhadra assumed the leadership of those left behind in Magadha.
This Sthulabhadra was evidently an energetic worker, and under his rule a gre it council was held at Pātaliputra (Patna ), which amongst other things collected the Jaina sacred books.
At this time also the home keeping Jaina adopted some sort of dress, and when the famine was over and the exiles returned, they found that their weaker brethren had not only lacked the strength of character to leave their own land but also the moral courage to keep their rule.
The orthodox Digambara Jaina refused to have any fellowship with their clothed (Svetāmbara) brethren, and thus laid a foundation for the schism which definitely arose in 82 A. D. and has lasted to this day. It seems probable that two parties in the community had always existed, and that only distance had been needed to enable the divergence to develop.
11