It will be evident from the foregoing outline of the first principles of Jainism, that the whole system hinges on the efficacy of self-mortification (_tapas_), self-restraint (_yama_), and asceticism. Only twenty-four supreme saints and T[=i]rthan-karas can appear in any one cycle of time, but every mortal man may be a self-restrainer (_yati_). Every one born into the world may be a striver after sanctity (_s[=a]dhu_), and a practiser of austerities (_tapasv[=i]_). Doubtless, at first there was no distinction between monks, ascetics, and ordinary men, just as in the earliest days of Christianity there was no division into bishops, priests, and laity. All Jainas in ancient times practised austerities, but among such ascetics an important difference arose. One party advocated an entire abandonment of clothing, in token of complete indifference to all worldly ideas and associations. The other party were in favour of wearing white garments. The former were called Dig-ambara, sky-clothed, the latter S´vet[=a]mbara (or, in ancient works, S´veta-pata), white-clothed.[10] Of these the Dig-ambaras were chronologically the earliest. They were probably the first to form themselves into a regular society. The first Jina, Rishaba, as well as the last Jina, Mah[=a]v[=i]ra, are said to have been Dig-ambaras, and to have gone about absolutely naked. Their images represent two entirely nude ascetics, whereas the images of other Jinas, like the Buddhist images, are representations of a sage, generally seated in a contemplative posture, with a robe thrown gracefully over one shoulder. It is not improbable that the ­S´vet[=a]mbara division of the Jainas were merely a sect which separated itself from the parent stock in later times, and became in the end numerically the most important, at least in Western India. The Dig-ambaras, however, are still the most numerous faction in Southern India, and at Jaipur in the North.[11] And, indeed, it need scarcely be pointed out that ascetics, both wholly naked and partially clothed, are as common under the Br[=a]hmanical system as among Jainas and Buddhists. The god S´iva himself is represented as a Dig-ambara, or naked ascetic, whenever he assumes the character of a Mah[=a]-yog[=i]--that is to say, whenever he enters on a long course of austerity, with an absolutely nude body, covered only with a thick coating of dust and ashes, sitting motionless and wrapped in meditation for thousands of years, that he may teach men by his own example the power attainable through self-mortification and abstract contemplation.