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The Followers of the Ever Growing One
139
and definitive rupture at a given moment and in a given place, some spectacular happening leading to an immediate cleavage in the heat of the quarrel; rather, it seems that after the departure of Bhadrabāhu, when years of famine had dispersed and decimated the number of munis, thus bringing about a general weakening and a diminished knowledge of the śruta, there came to the fore gradually divergences of opinion concerning both asceticism and the authenticity of the oral tradition.
According to certain texts, the muni Śivabhūti was the one to prescribe nudity for the ascetic state when he founded the sect of the Botikas. He was alive at about the end of the Ist century and was a disciple of Śramana Kanha, a famous muni whose image is to be found among the sculpture of Mathurā.10 It is recounted that Uttară, the sister of Sivabhūti, a sadhvi, decided to follow the example of her brother and remove her clothing, but when she went out to ask for alms a courtesan covered her nakedness, fearing that people would be shocked and come to despise women. Uttară complained to her brother, but this latter dissuaded her from adopting nudity. 11
The two major issues that divided the samgha so profoundly are, firstly, nudity: is it indispensable for the attainment of mokșa? and secondly: the authenticity of the Agamas, such as were already in existence in oral forn at the time of the Council of Pāțaliputra. This question of nudity was such a burning one that those who, for doctrinal reasons, adopted it radically and completely, called themselves digambaras: clothed in space, in the sky, while those who opted for the wearing of clothing, affirming that this practice is not an obstacle to final Liberation, called themselves svetāmbaras: the whiteclothed ones. 12 Up till our own day this division continues, each tradition having developed separately.
10 Cf. U.P. Shah, 1975, p. xv.
11 Cf. Việeşåvaśyaka-bhâsya 3032-3093; cf. also JSBSam II, pp. 399-411; PPN, pp. 119; 794.
12 It is to be noted that certain passages of the Svetämbara Āgamas are addressed to the naked ascetic; cf. e.g. ASI,7,7,1; US II, 34.
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