Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

SR No.: 011088
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society
Total Pages: 248
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 76

BANERJEE: JAIN RELIGION IN A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE 59
and Digambara-started when the people who had gone down to the south returned to the north in Magadha, where they perceived the differences between the two sects. This I would say is the basic turning point. Each claimed that theirs was the authentic teachings of Mahāvīra, while the other was mutilating it. But they lived side by side and it was only in the 1st century A.D., that is, the 79 A.D., or may be even the 4th or 3rd century B.C. that they started splitting up and by the 5th century A.D., they became completely different. When the people from the north migrated to the south came back to Magadha, they started looking at the differences between their ācāras or vyavahāras (conducts). For example, the Digambaras say that Mahāvīra did not wear any clothes, whereas the Svetambaras insist that he did. But if you see the statues of Mahāvīra belonging to the period from 1st century B.C. down to 13th-14th centuries A.D. they are all naked. So this becomes a point in favour of the Digambaras. Another difference is that the Svetambaras believe that women can also get renunciation or nirvāṇa, but, according to the Digambaras, women cannot get nirvāņa at all. According to the Svetambaras, Mahavira was married and had a daughter before he renounced the world, but, according to the Digambaras, Mahāvīra was not married at all. The canonical literature of the Śvetāmbaras is 45 in number which are not accepted by the Digambaras who have three different texts divided into 45 books. The Digambaras place the date of Mahavira between 659 and 587 B.C., whereas the Svetambaras place
Mahāvīra between 599 and 527 B.C.
In course of time, there arose many Sanghas, groups of people, in the South. According to the Digambara tradition, the Mula-sangha (the original community) was divided into four groups, such as, Nandi-sangha, Simhasangha, Deva-sangha, and Sena-sangha, are all groups that propagated the Jaina culture and the names normally took the name of the person who founded the Sanghas.