The Heart of Jainism/Chapter 5

by Alice Margaret Sinclair Stevenson

CHAPTER V

HISTORY OF THE JAINA COMMUNITY

The Four Tīrtha.

During Mahāvīra’s lifetime he attracted a great number of disciples, both men and women, and from these grew the four orders of his community: monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen.

Monks.Chief amongst his followers were fourteen thousand monks (or muni) and at the head of these were eleven chief disciples or Gaṇadhara whom Jaina compare to the twelve disciples of our Lord, Gośāla the twelfth corresponding to Judas. Mahāvīra had seen in the case of Gośāla and others the special temptations and dangers which beset ascetics in their wandering life, and he resolved to combat these as well as he could by organization and regulations. He therefore divided his fourteen thousand followers into nine regular schools called Gaṇa and placed each school under the headship of one of his chief disciples or Gaṇadhara. The leading Gaṇadhara had five hundred monks under them, but some of the others had only three hundred or two hundred and fifty.

Gautama was at the head of a school of five hundred, and so were his brothers Agnibhūti and Vāyubhūti, his other brother Akampita^[1] being at the head of three hundred scholars.

Sudharma was at the head of another school of five hundred monks.

Only two of these eleven Gaṇadhara, Gautama and Sudharma, survived Mahāvīra; the others attained Kevala jñāna and died of voluntary starvation at Rājagṛiha before their master’s death.

All the present Jaina monks are considered to be the spiritual descendants of Sudharma, for the other Gaṇadhara left no disciples.

Nuns.Besides the fourteen thousand monks a great multitude of women followed Mahāvīra, and of these some thirty-six thousand, the Jaina say, actually left the world and became nuns. At their head (at least according to the Śvetāmbara) was Ċandana, a first cousin of Mahāvīra’s, or as other accounts have it, his aunt.^[2]

In those troublous times acts of oppression and violence must have often occurred, and it was such an act that led to Ċandana’s becoming a nun. Once, as a girl, the story runs, Ċandana was walking in an open garden, when a wicked man named Vidyādhara saw her and, fascinated by her beauty, carried her off, meaning to take her to his own home. On his way thither he began to realize how displeasing her presence in his house would be to his wife, so, without troubling to take her back to the garden where he had found her, he abandoned her in a forest. A hillman found her weeping there, took her to Kauśāmbī and sold her to a wealthy merchant named Vṛiṣabhasena, who installed her in his house against his wife’s will. The wife grew more and more jealous of her, for Ċandana’s beauty increased every day, and ill-treated her in every possible way, clothing her in rags, feeding her on broken meats, and often beating her. Mahāvīra came and preached in Kauśāmbī and poor Ċandana needed but little persuasion to convince her of how evil a place the world was; gladly renouncing it she joined his community and eventually became the head of the nuns.^[3]

Laymen.Mahāvīra’s third order consisted of laymen; these were householders who could not actually renounce the world, but who could and did keep his rule in a modified form, while their alms supported the professed monks. The genius for organization which Mahāvīra possessed is shown in nothing more clearly than in the formation of this and the order of laywomen. These two organizations gave the Jaina a root in India that the Buddhists never obtained, and that root firmly planted amongst the laity enabled Jainism, as we have seen, to withstand the storm that drove Buddhism out of India. The laymen,^[4] Śrāvaka or Hearers as they were called, numbered during Mahāvīra’s lifetime one hundred and fifty-nine thousand men.^[5] At the head of their order were Śaṅkhajī and Śatakajī. These Hearers numbered amongst their ranks many nobles of high rank and even kings, who were delighted to thus proclaim their opposition to the priestly pretensions of the Brāhmans; nowadays the Śrāvaka are almost entirely recruited from the mercantile classes.

Lay-
women.The fourth and last order consisted of devout laywomen or Śrāvikā, whose household duties prevented their becoming nuns, and who yet served the great ascetic in many ways. They numbered some three hundred and fifty-eight thousand, and at their head were two women Sulasā and Revatī. Sulasā is considered the highest type of the purely domestic woman, the faithful wife or satī, and the Gujaratī Jaina women sing the following verse about her in the hymn of praise to the sixteen faithful wives which they chant every morning when they get up:

Sulasā was a really faithful wife, there was no sham about her!
She found no pleasure in worldly delights.
If we saw her face sins would flee away,
If we mention her name our minds are filled with joy.

Revatī is typical of the generous woman who gladly gives alms to ascetics. Once when Mahāvīra was ill (injured through the magic fire the faithless Gośāla had thrown at him) he felt that only one thing would cure him, and that was some of the jam which Revatī made. Much as he longed for it, however, he warned his disciples that they were not to accept it unless Revatī gave it gladly, for it was the very best jam! However, Revatī was so delighted to give it, and pressed it on the monks with such eagerness, that her name has ever since been a synonym for hospitality.

The Great Leaders.^[6]

Mahāvīra was during his lifetime the head of all the four orders in his community. After his death Gautama Indrabhūti, according to some authorities,^[7] succeeded him and continued to be the spiritual leader^[8] for twelve years; he was followed by Sudharma, who held office for another twelve Jambū Svāmīyears. Jambū Svāmī, a pupil of Sudharma, succeeded his old master and led the community for twenty-four years; he was the last Jaina to obtain Kevala jñāna, for after him both moksa and omniscience were closed to men.^[9] At the present time not only omniscience but also the degree of knowledge next below it, Manaḥparyāya jñāna, are lost to mankind.

Jambū Svāmī is called ‘the celibate’, and the following story is told of him. He was the son of a rich merchant in Rājagṛiha, and eight other rich merchants of the same town offered him their daughters in marriage. He (though not only already convinced through Sudharma’s teaching of the higher virtue of the unmarried state, but having actually taken a vow of perpetual celibacy!) offered no resistance to his father and eight would-be fathers-in-law, but married all the eight ladies. After the eight-fold marriage Jambū returned to his father's house, which that very night was attacked by Prabhava, the bandit son of Vindhya, king of Jaipur. The doughty robber had taken the precaution to weave a spell (for he was not only a prince and a robber but also a magician), which ought to have caused all the inhabitants of the merchant's house to fall into a deep sleep ; but this aristocratic spell had no effect on Jambū. When Prabhava asked the reason, Jambū explained that, as he was going to enter a spiritual career the next morning, spells had no power over him; Prabhava tried to dissuade him, and apparently their discussion aroused the eight wives of the celibate, for they joined their entreaties with his. Jambū told them many moral tales showing the superior virtues of celibacy; the ladies replied with other stories upholding the honour of the married state, but the palm lay with Jambū, for not only was he, with his parents' consent, initiated next morning by Sudharma, but in a few days Prabhava, the robber, also followed his example and renounced not only his habit of acquiring other people's property, but also his own possessions.

Prabhava.Jambū attained mokṣa according to Jaina authorities in 403 B.C., and was succeeded by Prabhava, the erstwhile prince, robber and magician. It was no longer possible for any one to attain mokṣa, so Prabhava (who died 397 B.C.) was not immediately released from the cycle of rebirth; yet so famous a saint must eventually attain mokṣa, though he would first have to pass through one, three, five, or at most fifteen, rebirths.

It was during this time that the two sects of Osavāla Jaina and Śrīmāla Jaina arose. It is also said that it was now that the image of Mahāvīra was enshrined at Upakeśa Pāṭṭana. This is probably a reference to the first introduction of idol worship into Jainism.

Śayambhava.Prabhava felt that there was no one amongst the Jaina capable of succeeding him as leader, and being much impressed by the spiritual genius of a staunch Brāhman called Śayambhava, he determined to win him over. He was successful and converted him just after he had offered a great sacrifice. Though he was married, he left his wife to become an ascetic, and the little son Manaka who was shortly after born to her eventually became a Jaina ascetic also, receiving initiation at his father’s hands. Śayambhava knew by his supernatural powers that his son would only live a short time, so he wrote a book for him called Daśavaikālika, in which he gave a complete conspectus of the leading Jaina tenets; it is on this book (a monument of a father’s love persisting even in the ascetic life) that Śayambhava’s claim to fame rests.

He was followed by Yaśobhadra, who died in 319 B.C., and was succeeded by Sambhūtivijaya, who only held sway for two years. The rule of these two was not marked by any outstanding event, but after them we come to one of the great epochs in Jaina history, which began with the leadership of Bhadrabāhu, who succeeded in 317 B.C.

Bhadrabāhu.The new leader was a scholar, and Jaina credit him with the authorship of the Niryukti or commentaries on the ten canonical books, and of a book on astronomy which is named after him the Bhadrabāhu Saṁhitā. He also wrote what the Śvetāmbara Jaina consider to be their holiest work, the Upasarga Harastotra Kalpa Sūtra.

It was during the headship of Bhadrabāhu and during the reign of Ċandragupta^[10] of the Maurya dynasty that a great famine^[11] took place, which seems to have been of the most terrible severity. It would of course be very difficult for a starving population to support a huge body of mendicants during famine years, and as the monks were homeless and wanderers by profession, it was only sensible that they should wander where food was more plentiful. Now it is probable, as we have seen, that Mahāvīra’s community or saṅgha had been formed by the union of two orders of mendicants, one clothed and one naked. This difference, being outward and visible, would be always liable to recur and cause schism, and probably the fusion of the two orders had never been complete, so that the famine sufficed to sever the community along the lines of the old division.

Sthūlabhadra.Part of the community, numbering, the Jaina say, twelve thousand, went with Bhadrabāhu to the south of India where famine had not penetrated, whilst the other part, also amounting to twelve thousand, remained behind under the leadership of Sthūlabhadra. Sthūlabhadra was the son of Śakaḍāla, who had been prime minister to the ninth Nanda king; on his father’s death he was offered the post, but renounced that and all earthly love to become an ascetic.

It was naturally only the more vigorous monks who undertook the long journey to Southern India, and perhaps the older and more infirm ascetics who remained at home had already been allowed to wear some clothing as a concession to their infirmities; the habit of so doing^[12] would have been likely now to become general amongst them. Thus one element of division was established amongst the Jaina, that of difference in practice, and it only remained, in order to make the division permanent, that they should have a differing sacred literature. Experience has shown what a unifying force a common sacred literature has on divergent sects, and the converse is also true. For example, it is probably only their refusal to accept the Veda as sacred which has prevented the Jaina from being long ago amalgamated with the Hindus. This element of division was not to be lacking between the two sects of Jaina. Sthūlabhadra was, the Jaina say, keenly alive to the importance of preserving their sacred literature, and he alone had learnt (in Nepal) the ten Pūrva and (on condition of keeping them secret) the four other Pūrva. In spite of the absence of Bhadrabāhu and his party, he called a council at Pāṭaliputra (modern Patna), which collected the Eleven Aṅga, but found that the Twelfth was missing. This Twelfth Aṅga contained fourteen Purva, which Sthūlabhadra was able to supply. When the famine was over, Bhadrabāhu returned; but he and his party refused to accept the work of the council of Patna and declared that the Aṅga and Pūrva were lost; they also declined to wear clothes. Though all this laid a very firm foundation for the schism between the Digambara (sky clothed, i.e. naked) and the Śvetāmbara (white clothed) when it should come, yet the split did not actually arise till A.D. 142, according to Jaina dates, or A.D. 82 according to Dr. Hoernle.

Bhadrabāhu died in 297 B.C. and was succeeded by Sthūlabhadra, who remained the head of the whole community till his death in 252 B.C.

Śrutakevalī.The six spiritual leaders who followed Jambū Svāmī are called Śrutakevalī, because, though the complete omniscience Jambū Svāmī and his predecessors attained was denied to them, they possessed complete knowledge of the scriptures. Daśapūrvī.They were followed by the Daśapūrvī, or leaders who knew the ten Pūrva of the Twelfth Aṅga.

The Great Schism.

Two schisms had already taken place during the lifetime of Mahāvīra, and two leaders had left the community. One was headed by Jamāli, son-in-law of Mahāvīra, who denied that a thing is perfected when it is begun (which some Jaina scriptures teach), and was specially annoyed when the doctrine, to his own discomfort, was applied by a disciple to the practical question of bed-making.

The other we have already noted; it was led by Gośāla,^[13] and its main tenet was Fatalism.

During the years that immediately followed the death of Sthūlabhadra three more schisms took place, seriously weakening the Jaina church. In 251 B.C. Aṣāḍhā Ācārya headed a schism called Avyakta, Four years later Aśvamitra left the Jaina community and became head of the Kṣaṇikavādī; and in 239 B.C. a Jaina called Gaṅga led a fifth schism.

The great schism had not, however, as yet taken place. It is interesting to remember that Bhadrabāhu had returned from South India to be head over the whole community, even over the refractory part that had taken to clothes; that he, the staunch believer in nakedness, had been followed by Sthūlabhadra, the clothed; and that this man in his turn was followed by a leader who discarded clothing.

Mahāgiri.Mahāgiri, the next head of the community after Sthūlabhadra’s death, is said to have revived ‘the ideal practice of nakedness’ which had fallen into disuse. During his rule two famous Jaina books are said to have been written: Tattvārtha Sūtra, by Umāsvāti, and the Pannavaṇā Sūtra (one of the Upāṇga), by Śyāmāċārya, who was himself a disciple of Umāsvāti. Mahāgiri’s rule is also noteworthy for his endeavours to bring the community back to their primitive faith and practice; he was a real ascetic and recognized that under Sthūlabhadra’s sway many abuses had crept into the order. It was doubtless this that had led so many of the community to drift away from it under the leaders of the schisms already mentioned. Mahāgiri was spurred on in his efforts after reform by the memory of a prophecy which foretold that after Sthūlabhadra the monks would become less strenuous in their lives. Samprati.He was defeated in his aims by the conversion of Samprati, grandson and successor of Aśoka^[14] and by the disastrous effects of the royal bounty that thenceforth flowed into the community.

The legend of Samprati’s conversion is given as follows by the Svetāmbara. Suhastin was one of the leading members of the Jaina community under Mahāgiri, and he once met King Samprati in Ujjain (East Mālwā). Now in a previous birth Samprati had been a beggar and had seen Suhastin’s disciples carrying sweets. When he asked for some of this confectionery Suhastin said he could only give them on condition of Samprati’s becoming his disciple, so he received initiation, took the sweets, ate heartily of them and died. When, as King Samprati, he saw Suhastin again, his former birth came back to his memory, and he again became a convert to Jainism. Samprati tried to spread Jainism by every means in his power, working as hard for Jainism as Aśoka had for Buddhism: he even sent preachers as far as Afghanistan; but unfortunately he quite demoralized the monks with the rich food he showered upon them. Suhastin dared not refuse this food, for, as in his previous birth, the king laid great stress on diet and would have been irreconcilably offended if it and his superabundant alms had been refused. So the old leader of the community, Mahāgiri, saw all his hopes of winning the monks to lives of sterner asceticism overturned; and, finding that remonstrance with Suhastin was of no avail, he separated from him and withdrew to Daśārṇabhadra, where he committed suicide by voluntary starvation.

Suhastin.After Mahāgiri’s death Suhastin became de jure the leader that he had previously been de facto, and the Jaina account him one of their greatest spiritual heads. A strong man was needed, for the community had been much weakened by the three schisms and by the late quarrel between Mahāgiri and himself; Suhastin therefore set himself to gain new disciples, and owing to his influence many new branches of the order were formed. Perhaps new recruits were received too readily, at any rate it was under him that Avantī Kumāra, whom the Jaina cite as the typical man who found the ascetic life too hard, joined the order. Avantī, the son of a rich man and brought up in luxury, could not bear all the suffering and hardships which fell to his lot as a monk. He dared not return to the world, so, to put an end to a position which he found intolerable, he committed suicide by fasting. His relatives built a magnificent temple on the spot where he died, and the Jaina say that this was the temple of Mahākāla in Ujjain, which is now, however, one of the twelve most famous Saiva temples in India. Poor Avantī’s story is still quoted as a warning not to enter on the mendicant life without counting the cost, and he is known as Avantī Sukumāra—Avantī the delicate.

Susthitasūri.Suhastin was succeeded by Susthitasūri in 177 B.C. Under him, according to the Jaina, their name of Nirgranthagaċċha was changed to that of Kalikagaċċha in honour of the krores of times the leader repeated the secret mantra taught him by his guru.

Indradinna.Indradinna, who followed Susthitasūri, is famous, not for anything that he did, but because the great Jaina saint Kalikāċārya flourished under his rule.

Kalikāċārya.The Jaina tell many stories of Kalikāċārya and the occult powers that his great learning gained him. It was owing to these powers, they believe, that he was able in 61 B.C. to destroy the dynasty of Gardabhila. Kalikāċārya’s sister was a nun, and she was once carried off by King Gardabhila. The saint went to a Scythian king and implored his assistance, but the king was afraid of attacking so powerful a sovereign as Gardabhila, especially as he was under the peculiar protection of the goddess Rāsabhī, who was able by the witchery of her singing to make it impossible for any one to approach within fourteen miles of the king.

Kalikāċārya could, however, on his part produce wealth by magic, and by this means he persuaded the Scythian king to come to his aid with an army. They encamped at a safe distance of about fifteen miles from King Gardabhila, and when his protecting goddess began to sing, all the Scythian army shot arrows at her mouth and filled it so full that she was unable to utter a sound. The spell being broken, Gardabhila was easily captured, and Kalikāċārya’s sister released. The king Gardabhila was eventually forgiven and set at liberty; he betook himself to a neighbouring forest, where he was finally devoured by a tiger, to the total extinction of his race.

Kalikāċārya is, however, specially remembered through the dispute which continues to this day about the keeping of Pajjusaṇa,^[15] some Jaina sects holding that it should begin on the fourth and some on the fifth day of the month Bhādrapada. The difference arose in this way: Kalikāċārya once visited the king of Peṇṭha (in the Dekkan) and asked him to come and listen to the discourses he was going to deliver at Pajjusaṇa. The king said he would have come if it had been any day but the fifth (in those days Pajjusaṇa only lasted for one day), but that being a special festival of Indra which he was bound to keep, he asked the saint to postpone the fast till the sixth. The ascetic, while declaring any postponement impossible, offered to arrange to hold it one day earlier, on the fourth of Bhādrapada. This was accordingly done, and ever since then some sects^[16] have begun the fast on the fourth and some on the fifth. The importance they give to this difference reminds one of the old ecclesiastical dispute about the date of Easter.

Siddhasena Divākara.According to the Jaina a learned ascetic, Siddhasena Divākara, the son of a Brāhman minister, lived about this time at the court of King Vikramāditya.^[17] There was another equally learned ascetic called Vṛiddhāvadī, and these two were anxious to meet and discover whose learning entitled him to be regarded as the superior of the other. At last they did encounter each other, but unfortunately they met in a jungle where the only judges they could find to decide their cause were ignorant village cowherds. Siddhasena, fresh from the Sanskrit-loving court, began the dispute, but used so many Sanskrit words that the cowherds had no idea what he was talking about, and quickly gave the palm to Vṛiddhāvadī who spoke in the simplest language and quoted many a shrewd rural jest and proverb; so Siddhasena had to accept Vṛiddhāvadī as his conqueror and guru. Siddhasena, however, still proud of his Sanskrit, formed the plan of translating all the Jaina scriptures from Māgadhī (a language understood by the common people) into Sanskrit: but his guru showed him the sin it would be thus to place them out of the reach of ordinary folk, and as penance for the very idea he wandered about for twelve years without uttering a word. His importance to Jainism lies evidently in his failure to sanskritize either the language or the scriptures;^[18] but he is also credited with the conversion to Jainism of King Vikramāditya of Ujjain and of Devapāla, king of Kumārapura. He is supposed to have died about 57 B.C.

Two other events are supposed to have happened about this time, the defeat of the Buddhists in a great argument by a famous Jaina controversialist, an ascetic called Ārya Khapuṭa who lived in Broach, and the founding of Śatruñjaya^[19] in the state of Pālitāṇā.

Vajrasvāmī.The next spiritual leader^[20] of great importance for our purpose was Vajrasvāmī, the last and greatest of the Daśapūrvī. It was in his time that the sixth schism took place. A Jaina sādhu called Rohagupta^[21] taught that there are not seven but only three constituent elements of the earth, viz.: Jīva, Ajīva and Nojīva; the schism is accordingly called the Nojīva schism and is believed to have arisen in A.D. 71. A seventh schism, led by Goṣṭa Mahāl, also took place under Vajrasvāmī’s rule. The Jaina believe that Vajrasvāmī was able to call up at will a magic carpet which conveyed him and his friends to any distance, and that once by its means he transplanted the whole community from a famine-stricken district to the town of Purī. The more enlightened Jaina say that this carpet really represents some modern mode of locomotion (steam engine, motor car, or aeroplane) the secret of whose construction Vajrasvāmī had anticipated. Vajrasvāmī had a famous disciple, Āryarakṣita, who had originally been a Brāhman and had studied all knowledge at Benares. His mother spurred him on to study the Jaina Pūrva, and whilst doing so he was converted to Jainism and learnt from Vajrasvāmī the whole of the nine-and-a-half Pūrva. He is famous amongst the Jaina for having arranged the Sūtra into four divisions that they might be the more easily understood.

Vajrasena.The Great Schism.We now come to the great division of the community. Vajrasvāmī was followed by Vajrasena, and under his leadership the Digambara finally separated from the main community. The new Head had not the personality of his predecessors, and was probably not strong enough to hold the balance between two contending parties; at any rate the Digambara now hived off. Differing dates are given for the separation: the Śvetāmbara believe it to have taken place in A.D. 142, the Sthānakavāsī in A.D. 83, whilst Dr. Hoernle places the date about A.D. 79 or 82.

The Śvetāmbara declare that the opposition sect was really founded (like many another sect since!) in a fit of temper, and give the following account of how it occurred. A certain Śivabhūti, who had been in the service of the king of Rathavīrapura, decided to become a Jaina ascetic. On the day of his initiation the king gave him a most costly and beautiful blanket as a farewell present. Seeing how over-fond he was of it, his guru advised him to return the gift, but he refused; whereupon, to save him from the snare, the guru during his absence tore the blanket into small pieces. Śivabhūti was so angry when he found what had happened that he declared that if he might not keep his blanket he would keep no covering at all, but would wander naked through the world like the Lord Mahāvīra himself. His first two disciples were Kauṇḍinya and Kattavīra. His sister Uttarā also wanted to follow him, but, seeing that it was impossible for a woman to go about nude, Śivabhūti refused to allow her to join him and declared that no woman could attain mokṣa without rebirth as a man.

The probability is that there had always been two parties in the community: the older and weaker section, who wore clothes and dated from Pārśvanātha’s time, and who were called the Sthavira kalpa (the spiritual ancestors of the Śvetāmbara); and the Jina kalpa, or Puritans, who kept the extreme letter of the law as Mahāvīra had done, and who are the forerunners of the Digambara.

The five main tenets of the Digambara in which they oppose the Śvetāmbara views^[22] are: that the Tīrthaṇkara Differences between Śvetāmbara and Digambara.must be represented as nude and unadorned, and with downcast eyes; that women cannot obtain mokṣa; that Mahāvīra never married; that once a saint had obtained Kevala jñāna he needed no food, but could sustain life without eating; and finally the great point over which the split occurred, that ascetics must be entirely nude, a decision which condemns the one or two Digambara ascetics now existing to live in the strict seclusion of a forest, somewhat to the relief of the reformers of their sect, who are thus saved from their interference.^[23]

Haribhadra Sūri.There were several spiritual leaders of no great moment who followed Vajrasena,^[24] but the next of real importance was the great Haribhadra Sūri. Haribhadra was originally a learned Brāhman and inordinately proud of his knowledge. He was converted to Jainism through hearing a Jaina nun named Yakanī recite a śloka which Haribhadra could not understand; the nun referred him to her guru, but the guru refused to explain it unless the inquirer first received initiation as a Jaina monk, which he accordingly did. Two of Haribhadra’s nephews, Haṁsa and Paramahaṁsa, became his disciples, and later on he sent them disguised to study Buddhist doctrines in order to refute them on their return. The Buddhist monks, however, were suspicious of the orthodoxy of these new inquirers and drew images of the Tīrthaṅkara on the steps of their monastery to see if they would tread on them. But the two Jaina boys neatly turned the tables by adding the sacred thread^[25] to the sketches and so making them representations of Buddha; this done, they trod on them happily enough. Enraged at this insult to their great leader, the Buddhist monks slew the lads. Haribhadra, maddened at their loss, determined to slay all the monks, some 1,444, in boiling oil by means of his occult powers, but was stopped in time by his guru.^[26] He repented deeply of his hasty resolve, and to expiate it he wrote no less than 1,444 books on various subjects, some of which remain to this day.

Siddhasūri.Siddhasūri^[27] was the next great head of the community; he was the grandson of a Prime Minister of Śrīmāla (once the capital of Gujarāt) and the cousin of the famous Sanskrit poet Māgha. Siddhasūri’s conversion happened on this wise. After his marriage he became a great gambler, and his wife grieved sorely over his absences from home. One night she was sitting up as usual waiting for his return, when her mother-in-law, seeing her weeping, asked her to go to sleep and said she would sit up for her son. When Siddhasūri returned long after midnight, his mother refused to open the door and told him to go and spend the night anywhere he could gain a welcome, for there was no admittance for him there. Deeply hurt, he sought entrance at the only open door he could find, which happened to be that of a Jaina Apāsaro.^[28] The sādhus were all sitting on the floor, recalling what they had learnt during the day, and their head, the gargaṛiṣi, as he was called, told him that before he could join their company he must become a sādhu too. Siddhasūri instantly resolved to do so: he obtained his father’s permission, though with great difficulty, and was initiated on the following morning.^[29] He studied Jainism deeply and became a great scholar, writing a commentary on the Upadeśamālā of Dharmadāsagaṇī. He then wished to study Buddhism and asked the gargarisi’s permission to go to a Buddhist monastery for this purpose. The gargaṛiṣi agreed, though with misgivings, but stipulated that if ever Siddhasuri felt he was being drawn to the Buddhist faith, he should come back and see him at least once before he joined their order. It fell out as the gargaṛiṣi had feared; the Buddhists were so struck with Siddhasūri’s learning that they proposed that he should turn Buddhist and become their Āċārya, Remembering his promise, he returned home to see the gargaṛiṣi once again; he was, however, engaged, and asked Siddhasūri to read a certain book, the Lalitavistara by Haribhadrasūri, whilst he waited. As he read it, repentance overtook him; he was again convinced of the soundness of the Jaina faith, sought forgiveness from the gargaṛiṣi, performed the penance imposed and became a sound Jaina. Eventually he rose to the position of Āċārya and strove by every means in his power to spread the faith.

Śīlaguṇasūri.The biographies of the successive leaders of the community need not detain us, but about two hundred years later there arose a great sādhu named Śīlaguṇasūri, who is famous as the restorer of the Ċāvaḍā dynasty. Once when wandering as a sādhu in the jungle between Waḍhwān and Kaḍīpāṭaṇa he saw a cradle hanging from a tree with a baby in it. By his knowledge of palmistry he at once discovered that this forlorn child would some day be a king. The child’s mother appeared and told him that she was the widow of the vanquished king of Gujarāt, Jayaśikhara, and that the child’s name was Vanarāja. Śīlaguṇasūri went to the neighbouring city and told the Jaina laymen of his discovery and of his belief that this child would one day be a king, and advised them to bring him up as a Jaina to the advantage of their faith. It all fell out as Śīlaguṇasūri had foretold, and when, grown to manhood after some years of outlawry, Vanarāja defeated his enemies and recovered the crown, he called Śīlaguṇasūri to his court, declared his intention of reigning as a Jaina king, and built the temple of Pañċāsarā Pārasanātha which still stands in Pāṭaṇa.

Bappaṭṭīsūri.An Āċārya named Siddhasena once had a dream in which he saw a lion’s cub on the roof of a temple; by this sign he knew that whoever should come to him during the following day would be capable of becoming a great sādhu. next day a clever lad called Bappa appeared, and Siddhasena asked him if he would like to stay in the Apāsaro and study with him. The boy agreed, and the boy’s father too was quite content, until he learnt that Siddhasena wished to turn his son into a sādhu. The father’s chief objection was that, as the boy was an only son, his own name would die out, but this was overcome by adding the father’s name to the son’s and calling him Bappabhaṭṭī. Bappabhaṭṭī as a sādhu was most zealous for the faith. Once he saw a boy weeping in a Jaina temple, who told him that he and his mother (one of the wives of the king of Kanauj) had been driven out through the intrigues of a co-wife, Bappabhaṭṭī arranged for the boy’s comfort and assured him that he would one day be king of Kanauj. When this happened, the young king called Bappabhaṭṭī to his court and assisted Jainism in every possible way by building temples and Apāsarā. Bappabhaṭṭī declined to stay long in the morally enervating atmosphere of a court, but during his second visit was enabled to save the king from the toils of a nautch girl. Visiting Bengal, Bappabhaṭṭī won over a reigning prince to the Jaina faith. Later he met a Buddhist preacher whom he defeated in a discussion, thereby gaining for himself the magnificent title of the Lion who defeated the Elephant in argument. After spreading the faith in many other ways, he died in A.D. 839.

Śīlāṅgāċārya.Passing over other leaders of less importance, we come to Śīlāṅgāċārya,^[30] the dates of whose birth and death are uncertain, but who was alive in A.D. 862. He wrote commentaries on each of the eleven Aṅga, but unfortunately only two of these remain.

Abhayadevasūri.In A.D. 1031 a boy of sixteen, named Abhayadevasūri, was made head of the community; he wrote commentaries to supply the place of the missing nine commentaries of Śīlāṅkāċārya.

Hemāċārya.Some sixty years later was born the famous Hemāċārya^[31] or Hemaċandrasūri, who became Head or Āċārya in A.D. 1121. He wrote a comparative grammar of six of the Prākṛits, with which Siddharāja, the reigning king of Gujarāt, was so delighted that he placed it before him on an elephant and took it to his treasury in state. The next king, Kumārapāla, was converted to Jainism through Hemāċārya’s influence. This monarch, besides building magnificent temples, endeared himself still more to his Jaina subjects by prohibiting the kilhng of animals throughout his dominions. Under Kumārapāla Jainism became the state religion of Gujarāt, and its head-quarters were no longer to be found in the district of Bihār its birthplace, but were transferred to the dominions of this Jaina king. Hemacarya continued his literary labours throughout his long life, and it is said that before his death in A.D. 1184 he had written 35,000,000 śloka on such differing subjects as religion, history and grammar. As Hemāċārya wrote chiefly in Sanskrit, his name is held in high honour by educated Hindus as well as Jaina. No Āċārya since Hemaċandra has ever wielded so great an influence;^[32] he is called the ‘Omniscient of the Kaliyuga’, and with his name we may fitly close our account of the early Heads of the Community.

Epigraphic Corroboration.

In our study of the Jaina tradition with regard to Mahāvīra and his successors we have incidentally touched the outstanding points of Jaina history as accepted to-day by European scholars. Not long ago all statements made by the Jaina about themselves were received with the gravest suspicion, but the inscriptions which have been deciphered at Mathurā and elsewhere so corroborate the Jaina account that it would seem well worth while to collect and collate their annals and legends as material for that Jaina history which, owing to the incompleteness of our knowledge, cannot yet be written in full.

The events on which in the meantime most scholars are agreed, and which are borne out in the Jaina history that we have studied, include the existence of the Pārśvanātha order of monks prior to Mahāvīra; the birth of Mahāvīra somewhere about 599 B.C. and his death about 527 B.C.; and the remarkable spread of Jainism under Suhastin in the third century B.C., which, as Dr. Hoernle^[33] points out, is corroborated not only by their own paṭṭāvalīs,^[34] but also by an inscription of Khāravela on the Khaṇḍagiri rock near Cuttack, which shows that by the middle of the second century the Jaina had spread as far as Southern Orissa.

There is a still earlier inscription dating from about 242 B.C. referring to the Jaina, the edict of Aśoka, the great Maurya king who lived in the third century B.C., which is cited by Vincent Smith.^[35] He says in the second part of the seventh ‘pillar’ edict which he issued in the twenty-ninth year of his reign:

‘My Censors of the Law of Piety are employed on manifold objects of the royal favour affecting both ascetics and householders, and are likewise employed among all denominations. Moreover, I have arranged for their employment in the business of the Church (saṅgka) and in the same way I have employed them among the Brāhmans and the Ājīvikas, and among the Jains also are they employed, and, in fact, among all the different denominations.’

This, as Dr. Bühler says, shows that the Jaina occupied a position of no small importance even at that date.

The inscriptions in Māthura dating from the first and second century A.D. also go to prove the trustworthiness of the Jaina historical traditions enshrined in the Kalpa Sūtra, for they show the same divisions and subdivisions of the Jaina schools, families and branches as the Kalpa Sūtra recorded,^[36] and they also mention the Kauṭika^[37] division (founded by Susthita) which belonged to the Śvetāmbara sect, thus proving the early date of the schism.

After the schism the next great event in Jaina history was the birth of Hemaċandra, his success in winning over to Jainism Kumārapāla (perhaps in A.D. 1125) and the resulting change of the Jaina head-quarters from Bihār, its birthplace, to Gujarāt, which since that date has been the chief centre of Jaina influence.

The legends, however, throw light for us on much of the intervening time, witnessing as they do to the conflicts between Jainism and its two great rivals, Brāhmanism and Buddhism.

The Later Sects.

Under the rule of Hemaċandra Jainism reached its zenith, and after his time its influence declined. Brāhman opposition grew stronger and stronger, and the Jaina say that their temples were often destroyed. Constant dissensions amongst themselves divided the Jaina community into numberless sects such as the Punamīyāgaċċha, the Kharataragaċċha, the Añċalagaċċha, the Sārdhapunamīyāgaċċha, the Āgamikagaċċha and the Tapagaċċha.^[38]

Thus weakened, Jainism could ill withstand the Mohammedan deluge which swept over India in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Jaina temples were razed to the ground, their sacred books burnt and their monastic communities massacred. Buddhism was simply swept out of India proper altogether by the storm, but, as we have already noticed, Mahāvīra’s genius for organization now proved the salvation of his community. Firmly rooted amongst the laity, they were able, once the hurricane was past, to reappear once more and begin to throw out fresh branches.

One trace of their suffering still remains in the way the Jaina guard their sacred books in Treasure Houses (often underground) to which no alien can gain admittance.

Rise of the non-idolatrous sects.The next outstanding event in Jaina history was the rise of the non-idolatrous sects. The Sthānakavāsī love to point out the similarity of dates between their rise, which was a true Reformation as far as they were concerned, and that of the birth and work of Martin Luther in Europe. They arose not directly from the Śvetāmbara but as reformers of an older reforming sect.

The Loṅkā sect.Loṅkā Śā was the name of an Aḥmadābād Jaina belonging originally to the Svetambara sect, who employed several clerks to copy the Jaina scriptures. About A.D. 1474 a Śvetāmbara sādhu named Jñānajī asked him to copy several sacred books for him: whilst reading these, Loṅkā Śā was struck with the fact that idol-worship was not once mentioned in them. He pointed this out to Jñānajī and others, and a sharp controversy arose between them as to the lawfulness of idolatry. In the meantime a crowd of pilgrims going to Śatruñjaya arrived in Aḥmadābād and were won over to Loṅkā Śā’s side, but unfortunately they had no sādhu amongst them. At length a Śvetāmbara layman named Bhāṇajī was convinced and decided to become a sadhu. As there was no guru obtainable, he ordained himself and became the first Āċārya of the Loṅkā sect. The office of Āċārya might almost be said to I have become hereditary in his hands; for though, of course, he had no descendants, yet he himself selected from the Loṅkā sadhus the one who should fill the office of Āċārya on his death; his successor did the same, and this custom exists amongst the Loṅkā Jaina down to the present day.

The Sthānakavāsī sect.Some of the members of the Loṅkā sect disapproved of the lives of their sādhus, declaring that they lived less strictly than Mahāvīra would have wished. A Loṅkā layman, Vīrajī of Surat, received initiation as a sādhu and won great admiration through the strictness of his life. Many from the Loṅkā sect joined this reformer, and they took the name of Sthānakavāsī^[39] whilst their enemies called them Ḍhuṇḍhīā.^[40]

The present writer had the pleasure of meeting the Āċārya of the Sthānakavāsī sect, a gentleman named Śrī Lālajī, whom his followers hold to be the seventy-eighth Āċārya in direct succession to Mahāvīra. Many sub-sects have arisen amongst the Sthānakavāsī Jaina, and each of these has its own Āċārya, but they all unite in honouring Śrī Lālajī as a true ascetic. Excepting on the crucial point of idol-worship, the Sthānakavāsī differ very little from the Śvetāmbara sect out of which they sprang, often indeed calling themselves Sthānakavāsī Śvetāmbara.

1. The Sthānakavāsī Jaina do not believe that Akampita was the brother of Gautama; they think he was only a friend.
2. Ċandana was the daughter of Ċetaka, king of Vaiśālī; and this Ċetaka was either the brother or the father of Triśalā, Mahāvīra’s mother.
3. The Sthānakavāsī legend differs a good deal. Ċandana according to this was captured in warfare and sold by a soldier into the house where she was ill-treated.
4. It is interesting to compare with these the Gṛihastha of the Hindus.
5. The Digambara say 100,000.
6. The following history is gleaned entirely from Jaina sources and represents what the Jaina say about themselves and their past. It was found impossible to include all the legends, so the selection was left to Jaina paṇḍits who chose those which they considered of crucial importance for the comprehension of their religion. The dates, unless otherwise stated, are those given by the Jaina.
7. According to others Gautama never held office, having become a Kevalī.
8. The word the Gujaratī Jaina use for the spiritual headship is पाट pāṭa.
9. This was a sign of the degeneration of the Avasarpiṇī.
10. Ċandragupta (c. 322–298 B.C.), grandfather of Aśoka and first paramount sovereign of India. According to Jaina tradition he abdicated in 297 B.C., became a Jaina ascetic, and died twelve years later of voluntary starvation in Śrāvaṇa Belgolā in Mysore.
11. Dr. Hoernle suggests 310 B.C. as the date of this famine.
12. They seem generally to have worn white garments.
13. See p. 58.
14. Aśoka was Emperor of India 273–231 B.C. The Jaina say that he was a Jaina before he was converted to Buddhism.
15. Or Paryuṣaṇa, the sacred festival at the close of the Jaina year.
16. The Tapagaċċha observe the fourth, the Sthānakavāsī the fifth day, the Añċalagaċċha sometimes the fourth and sometimes the fifth. Occasionally owing to differing astrologers all sects observe the same day as the beginning of the fast.
17. Vikramāditya, according to tradition, was king of Ujjain, and ‘the golden age’ of Sanskrit literature is said to have coincided with his reign. He is now considered by many scholars to be a purely legendary monarch.
18. There is said to be always a marked difference between the speech of a Brāhman and a Jaina, since the former use as many Sanskrit words as possible, and the latter, especially the Sthānakavāsī, use the simple vernacular.
19. Śatruñjaya, the Jaina say, was built by a monk who had the power of rising through the air, and by a disciple of his who had the power of creating gold. This fortunate conjunction of talents has resulted in one of the loveliest temple cities in the world.
20. Indradinna had been followed by Dinnasūri, and he by Siṁhagiri, and then came Vajrasvāmī.
21. Rohagupta had a disciple called Kaṇāda who was, according to the Jaina, the founder of the famous Vaiśeṣika philosophy.
22. They also differ on many points of ritual and custom.
23. The Digambara also differ on certain historical details. The following, according to some authorities, is the list of Āċārya who came after Jambū Svāmī; this list carries their records up to A.D. 216. Viṣṇu, Nandimitra, Aparajita, Govardhana and Bhadrabāhu, who all knew the twelve Aṅga. These were followed by Viśākhāċārya, Paustilāċārya, Kṣatriya, Jayasena, Nāgasena, Siddhārtha, Dhṛitisena, Vijaya, Buddhimāna, Gaṇadeva and Dharmasena; all these eleven knew eleven Aṅga and ten Pūrva. Nakṣatra, Jayapāla, Pāṇḍu, Dharmasena and Kaṁsāċārya, who followed, knew only the texts of eleven Aṅga. Then came four men, Śubhadeva, Yaśobhadra, Mahīyaśa and Lokāċārya, who knew only one Aṅga.
24. His immediate follower was Candrasūri, under whom the name of the community was changed from Koḍīgaċċha to Ċandragaċċha, only to be renamed Vanavāsīgaċċha under the next leader, Sāmantabhadrasūri, owing to that ascetic’s love of living in the forest.
    Mānadeva was the next Head of the community. He was waited on by four goddesses, and composed many mantras (called śāntisioira), against the plague that raged in Tāxilā. He was followed by Mānatuiiga, the author of the Bhaktāmarastotra. This stotra of forty-four verses was so powerful that each verse when repeated could break open a locked door!
25. The Jaina never wear the sacred thread as the Buddhists do. The Brāhmans of course always wear it from their eighth year.
26. Bhandarkar gives a different account in his Search after Jaina MSS., 1883, p. 141, where it is said that Haribhadra actually killed the monks. This the Jaina indignantly deny.
27. His date is variously given as A.D. 536 and 539.
28. The name given to a Jaina meeting-house and monks’ lodging.
29. The Jaina now wish to institute a period of testing and training before a candidate can obtain initiation.
30. Or, Śīlāṅkāċārya.
31. Dr. Jacobi gives Hemaċandra’s dates as A.D. 1088 or 1089–1173, E.R.E., vi. 591.
32. An English-speaking Jaina has written of him thus: ‘He was man pious and profound and wiser even than Shakespeare, and had a memory far surpassing that of Macaulay.’
33. J. A. S. B., 1898, p. 48.
34. Lists of the succession of teachers.
35. Aśoka (Rulers of India series), pp. 192, 193.
36. J. G. Bühler, The Indian Sect of the Jainas, London, 1903, p. 43.
37. Hoernle, J. A. S. B., 1898, p. 50.
38. This last is the most important sect. It is ruled by twelve Srīpūjya, the chief of whom has his seat in Jaipur.
39. Those who live in Apāsarā (not in temples).
40. Searchers. This title has grown to be quite an honourable one.