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Jaina Śramaņa Tradition from Adinātha to Pārśvanātha
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Śramaņa Order and Tradition of Lord Rșabha -
Lord Rsabha established a large Śramaņa order that consisted of eighty-four principal disciples (Gañadharas), eighty-four thousand monks and three hundred thousand nuns. He had prescribed an ethical code for his ascetic order that comprised five great vows of complete non-violence, truthfulness, non-theft, sexual continence and detachment from material as well as emotional baggage. They could not stay in one place for over a month except for the rainy season when they could stay at one place for four months. To atone for their known and unknown flaws and faults every morning and evening they had to recall, repent and retract (Pratikramana) for them regularly. The reason cited for this regular observance, even if an infraction had not been known to have been committed, is that at that early time in the history of human evolution the people and so the ascetics were quite simple but not very bright? The last Tirthankara Lord Mahāvīra also prescribed a similar ritual observance irrespective of the commitment of the flaw or otherwise. However, the reason cited for this prescription was that by his time the people and so the ascetics had also become dull as well as crooked.' Lord Rsabha not only ordained the ascetics in his Śramanic order but also imparted the knowledge, gained through his constant contemplation and meditation, to his disciples. Amongst his disciples there were twenty thousand monks and nuns who had gained omniscience and liberation, four thousand seven hundred and fifty who had gained the knowledge of fourteen Pūrvas, nine thousand who had gained extra sensory clairvoyant perception, and twelve thousand six hundred who had gained extensive telepathic perception. From Ajitnātha to Aristanemi -
In the period of some forty-two thousand years less than a Kotakoți Sāgaropama that elapsed between the nirvāņa of the first Tirthankara Bhagvān Rşabhadeva and the advent of the penultimate Tirthankara Bhagvān Pārsvanātha there were twenty-one more Tirtharkaras from the second one Bhagvān Ajitnatha to the twenty-second Lord Ariştanemi. The Šramanic traditions of these twenty-one Tīrtharkaras were slightly different from those of the first and the last Tirtharikaras for the simple reason that the nature and intellectual capacities of their disciples had
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