A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1Dasgupta, Surendranath
Religion
A History of Indian Philosophy, Volume 1
Dasgupta, Surendranath
Hindu philosophy; India -- Religion
There are two main sects of Jains, S'vetâmbaras (wearers of
white cloths) and Digambaras (the naked). They are generally
agreed on all the fundamental principles of Jainism. The tenets
peculiar to the Digambaras are firstly that perfect saints such as
the Tîrtha@nkaras live without food, secondly that the embryo of
Mahâvîra was not removed from the womb of Devanandâ to that
of Tris'alâ as the S'vetâmbaras contend, thirdly that a monk
who owns any property and wears clothes cannot reach Mok@sa,
fourthly that no woman can reach Mok@sa [Footnote ref 3]. The Digambaras
deny the canonical works of the S'vetâmbaras and assert that
these had been lost immediately after Mahâvîra. The origin of
the Digambaras is attributed to S'ivabhûti (A.D. 83) by the
S'vetâmbaras as due to a schism in the old S'vetâmbara church,
of which there had already been previous to that seven other
schisms. The Digambaras in their turn deny this, and say that
they themselves alone have preserved the original practices, and
that under Bhadrabâhu, the eighth sage after Mahâvîra, the last
Tîrtha@nkara, there rose the sect of Ardhaphâlakas with laxer
principles, from which developed the present sect of S'vetâmbaras
(A.D. 80). The Digambaras having separated in early times
from the S'vetâmbaras developed peculiar religious ceremonies of
their own, and have a different ecclesiastical and literary history,
though there is practically no difference about the main creed.
It may not be out of place here to mention that the Sanskrit
works of the Digambaras go back to a greater antiquity than
those of the S'vetâmbaras, if we except the canonical books of
the latter. It may be noted in this connection that there developed
in later times about 84 different schools of Jainism differing from
one another only in minute details of conduct. These were called
_gacchas_, and the most important of these is the Kharatara Gaccha,
which had split into many minor gacchas. Both sects of Jains have
___________________________________________________________________
[Footnote 1: See "_Digumbara Jain Iconography (1. A, xxxii [1903] p. 459"
of J. Burgess, and Bûhler's "Specimens of Jina sculptures from Mathurâ,"
in _Epigraphica Indica_, II. pp. 311 etc. See also Jacobi's article on
Jainism, _E.R.E._]
[Footnote 2: See Jacobi's article on Jainism, _E.R.E._]
[Footnote 3: See Gu@naratna's commentary on Jainism in
_@Sa@ddars'anasamuccaya_.]
171
preserved a list of the succession of their teachers from Mahâvîra
(_sthavirâvali, pa@t@tâvali, gurvâvali_) and also many legends about
them such as those in the _Kalpasûtra_, the _Paris'i@s@ta-parvan_ of
Hemacandra, etc.
The Canonical and other Literature of the Jains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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