Temple of Satrunjaya

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

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Acarya in the time of Candra Suri the fifteenth teacher, 47 who lived eight hundred and nine years after the death of Mahavira, or about A.D. 282. This is hardly consistent however with the statement that Mahavira himself, the last Tirthankara, and probably the real founder of the Jaina sect, was a Digambara, and went about in a state of perfect nudity. 48 Now-a-days however the Digambaras do not go naked but wear coloured clothes, throwing aside their wrappers only when they receive the food given to them by their disciples. The Svetambaras decorate the images of their Tirthankaras wiïh carrings, necklaces, armlets, and crowns of gold and jewels;49 the Digambaras do not ornament them, or even insert eyes of crystal, etc., in them. They likewise deny the importance of the tripuni and rajoharana, that women can attain nirvāṇa, and that the Angas5) or Scriptures were written by the immediate disciples of the Jinas. The Bhattaraka or pointiff of the Digambaras lives, indoors at least, without any clothing whatever, as a proof, if not the reward of austerities and the denial of all earthly feelings. There is only one temple belonging to this scct at Satrunjaya, but they appear to have been influential at one time. The caves at Gwalior are of Digambara origin, and have statues,
47 Wilson, Essays, Vol. I. p. 337. Tod (Travels in Western India, p. 389) says: "in
Samvat 400, A.D. 344;" but this may have arisen from an error in the hundreds figure, as S.300 and A.D. 244 nearly agrees with the date given above, if we place the death of Mahavira 569 B.C., as given by Princep (Useful Tables, p. 166). Col. Miles says the Digambara sect in some Pattavalis"is ascribed to a certain priest named Sri or Tri Gupta; and the date of its rise, S. 609 or A.D. 552; in others, it is stated to have arisen 984 years after Mahavira, that is A.D. 457." It is also ascribed to the time of Bhadra Bahu, the fifth Srutakevali, about 365B.C., when it is related twelve successive years of famine occurred, and the Jainas were dispersed, those migrating eastward became Digambaras, and those westward Svetambaras. "In the list of the succession of the Tapa priests or Acaryas, it is also stated that Gode Mali, or Ghos Mahil, the first Digambara, lived about S.608 or A.D. 551, and he had four celas, named Canda, Canaka, Naurat and Vedita, each of these instituted a separate sect about S.620 or A.D. 563; they were originally called Vanavasi. This division is said to be most numerous in Rajputana; there are however some in Gujarat, as the Humada and other Vanias."--Trans R. As. Soc., Vol. III. p. 368 and Delamaine, Trans. R. Asiat. Soc., Vol. I. pp. 416, 417. Stevenson, Kalpa Sutra, Introd. p. xiv. For some curious notices of the six Tirthakas—Purna Kasyapa, Mankhali Gosala, Nirgrantha Nathaputra, Ajita Kesa-Kambala, Sanjaya Belathiputra and Prakuddha Katyayana, see A. Remusat, Foe Koue Ki, pp. 149, 150; Laidlay, Pilgrimage of Fa-Hien, pp. 144, 145; Sykes, Jour. Roy. Asiat. Soc., Vol. VI. pp. 266, 267 or 'Notes on the State of Ancient India', pp. 20, 21; and Alwis, Buddhism, Its Origin, etc., pp. 7-12. Conf. H. H. Wilson, Works, Vol. I., p. 339. Francklin, Researches on the Tenets and Doctrines of the Jeynes and Boodhists, p. 189. These are thus enumerated: Acarangam, Sutrakrtangam, Sthanangam, Samavayangam, Bhagavatyangam, Jnatadharmakatha, Upasakadasa, Antakrddasa, Anuttaropapatikadasa, Prasnavyakaranam, and Vipakasutram, eleven in all.--Hemacandra's Abhidhana Cintamani, 243, 244 (Ed. Boehtlingk and Rieu), p. 39. 3
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