Śvetāmbara

Fourfold community
Image by Wellcome Trust Library © Wellcome Library, London

Among Śvetāmbara Jains several Sanskrit terms are used for a ‘sect’:

• saṅgha – community
• gaccha – group
• gaṇa – mendicant group
• panth – path.

The term saṅgha can express the meaning of the whole ‘fourfold community’, which is composed of monks and nuns, lay men and lay women. It can also be used for the ‘monastic community’ – sādhu-saṅgha or muni-saṅgha. Organisations of mendicants are known as either gaṇa or gaccha, which both mean ‘group’. Most Śvetāmbara Jains would describe a sect as a gaccha. Indeed, the label ‘gaccha’ forms part of the title of some Śvetāmbara Mūrti-pūjak sects, such as the Añcala-gaccha, the Kharatara-gaccha and others. The Śvetāmbara Sthānaka-vāsin prefer sampradāya to gaccha.

Śvetāmbara monastic bowls
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

Meaning ‘white-clad’ in Sanskrit, the term Śvetāmbara described the white clothing of monks and nuns in this sect. They wear simple white – śveta – cotton robes – ambara. There are also other key features of doctrine and practice that distinguish members of the Śvetāmbara sect.

Characteristics of Śvetāmbara sect

Mendicant clothing	white robes
Mendicant equipment	bowls water-pot cotton broom mouth-cloth plus, for Mūrti-pūjak mendicants only bookstand staff
Holy texts	Āgamas: Angas Anga-bāhyas
Women	can achieve liberation
Sex of Jinas	the 19th Jina, Malli, was a woman
Images of Jinas	open eyes wear loincloths often painted and set in ornately sculpted altars and temples

The main Śvetāmbara sect has split into smaller subsects over the centuries. New groups formed around successive monastic leaders, creating monastic lineages. The records – paṭṭāvalis or gurv-āvalis – of several mendicant lineages have survived and offer information about the origin and development of the sect.

Five of Mahāvīra’s disciples
Image by Wellcome Trust Library © Wellcome Library, London

The significant Śvetāmbara text of the Kalpa-sūtra provides the principal record of mendicant lineages. The second section of the Kalpa-sūtra is the Sthavirāvalī, which supposedly documents the situation at the time of the 24th Jina, Mahāvīra. Mahāvīra had 11 disciples – gaṇa-dharas, who led groups of mendicants – gaṇas. Two gaṇa-dharas at a time managed two groups, making a total of nine gaṇas. None of the chief disciples had any spiritual descendant except Ārya Sudharman, so that ‘The Nirgranthas Śramaṇas of the present time are all [spiritual] descendants of the monk Ārya Sudharman’ (Kalpasūtra, Jacobi’s translation: 1884 : 287). Another reason for Sudharman’s prominence is that he did not achieve omniscience in Mahāvīra’s lifetime and hence was in a position to assume leadership of the mendicant community. All the later Śvetāmbara sectarian traditions claim descent from Sudharman except one, the Upakeśa-gaccha. This group claims descent from the 23rd Jina, Pārśvanātha or Lord Pārśva. The lines of succeeding religious teachers who claim a common mendicant ancestor are listed in the Sthavirāvalī in the Kalpa-sūtra. The most recent is Devarddhi Kṣamāśramaṇa, who arranged for the final redaction of the scriptures at Valabhī, in Gujarat, in the fifth century CE. However, later documents that focus on the writing down of the holy scriptures indicate that two separate recitation traditions existed. The Gujarati towns of Mathurā and Valabhī seem to have had their own traditions, which implies that strongly held disagreements divided the Śvetāmbara community even in the fifth century. The question of whether it is proper to worship images emerged as an issue of contention in the late medieval period. Disagreements on this topic caused several subsects to be established over the next few centuries. The present-day names for the main Śvetāmbara subsects date back to this period, when the worship of images became a major sectarian difference. The terms are:

• Mūrti-pūjaka
• Sthānaka-vāsin
• Terāpanthin.

These sects agree on several fundamental areas but hold different beliefs and have diverse practices in some respects. The Śvetāmbara sects agree on the:

• authority of the Śvetāmbara canonical scriptures, with slight differences
• claims of monastic descent from Sudharman, except for the Upakeśa-gaccha
• white monastic robes of monks and nuns.

The other disputed topics may have developed gradually, in part as signs of difference from the other sects.

Main areas of Śvetāmbara sectarian disagreement

	Mūrti-pūjak sect	Sthānaka-vāsin sect	Terāpanthin sect
Canonical scriptures	45	32	32
Worship of images	yes	no	no
Monastic equipment – staff	yes	no	no
Monastic equipment – broom handle	short	long	long
Monastic equipment – use of mouth-cloth	worn at certain times	worn permanently	worn permanently
Nuns – access to canonical scriptures, to various levels	yes	yes	yes
Nuns – permission to preach	no	no	yes

In addition, the sects have differences regarding the daily liturgy and recitation, and also the religious calendar.

Śvetāmbara monks
Image by Hoorob – Robert Tyabji © CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

The Sanskrit name Mūrti-pūjaka means ‘worshipper of images’, meaning images of the Jinas. Synonyms are the modern Indian words Derāvāsī – which literally means ‘staying in temples’ – and Mandir Mārgī –‘temple-followers’. Such terms have to be understood in contrast with the Sthānaka-vāsins, who reject image worship. This explains why these terms became common only when the latter came into formal existence, between the 15th and 17th centuries. Mūrti-pūjaks form the largest Śvetāmbara sectarian tradition. Within the Mūrti-pūjak tradition there are several subsects called gacchas. They all recognise the authority of 45 canonical scriptures. The subsects are:

• Tapā-gaccha
• Añcala-gaccha
• Kharatara-gaccha
• Pūrṇimā-gaccha
• Pārśvacandra-gaccha
• Vimala-gaccha
• Tristuti-gaccha.

Śvetāmbara Sthānaka-vāsin or Terā-panthin nuns
Image by arjunstc – Arjun © CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

The origin of the Sthānaka-vāsin sect goes back to the lay man Loṅkā Śāh, who lived in the 15th century. It is divided into different monastic orders. Today followers of the Sthānaka-vāsins are found mainly in Gujarat and in the Hindi- and Punjabi-speaking areas of north India. The main distinctive feature of the sect is rejection of image-worship. The term Sthānaka-vāsin literally means ‘hall-dweller’ in Sanskrit, and should be understood as being the opposite of Mūrti-pūjaka, which means ‘image-worshippers’. A ‘hall’ here is an empty building, contrasted with temples, where images of the Jinas are housed and worshipped. First found in a text written in 1630, the term ‘Sthānaka-vāsin’ became regularly used only at the beginning of the 20th century. The Sthānaka-vāsins are sometimes considered to be ‘protestant’ Jains. They put emphasis on strict asceticism, meditation and fasting. Unlike the Mūrti-pūjak traditions, the Sthānaka-vāsins recognise only 32 canonical scriptures as authoritative, not 45. They deny texts they consider do not reflect Mahāvīra’s teaching, and they thus hold 13 works to be apocryphal. The Sthānaka-vāsin mendicants are split into numerous groups, mainly on account of historical, doctrinal and regional differences they think cannot be overcome. Their mendicants must always wear the mouth cloth – muhpattī. This table is based on information in Flügel 2006.

Sthānaka-vāsin mendicants in 1996 and 1999

Sampradāya	Mendicants in 1996	Mendicants in 1999
Śramaṇsangh	979	1096
Independent	876	967
Gujarati	1139	1160
Total	2994	3223

Ācārya Tulsi
Image by Pramodjain3 © CC BY-SA 3.0

The Terāpanthins are the followers of the Terāpantha. This Śvetāmbara tradition was founded in Rajasthan, which remains closely associated with it. Muni Bhikhan (1726–1803), later known as Ācārya Bhikṣu, created it in the 18th century. Born into a family following the image-worshipping tradition, he entered the monastic order of the Sthānaka-vāsins, who oppose the practice. He split from this group and founded a new one, together with 12 other monks. This fact may give the sect its name, since the Hindi term terāpantha or terahpantha means either ‘your path’ or ‘path of 13’. Ācārya Bhikṣu’s establishment of a new sect shows a certain amount of fluidity between monastic traditions and also demonstrates the importance of regional factors in the development of different sects. The main features of the Terāpanthins are:

• rejection of image-worship
• greater stress on meditational practices and contemplation – prekṣā-dhyāna
• emphasis on social values, such as female education.

The Terāpanthamonastic order has a few notable characteristics, namely:

• the supremacy of a single ācārya, chosen by his predecessor
• an intermediate category of monks and nuns, created in 1980, called samaṇas and samaṇīs, who are permitted to use public transport and thus can travel outside India
• the permanent use of the mouth-cloth among monks and nuns.

Like the other Śvetāmbara aniconic sect, the Sthānaka-vāsin, the Terāpanthins state that the canon consists of 32 scriptures. Their present leader is Ācārya Mahāśramaṇa. In 1999, there was a total of 711 mendicants in this sect (Flügel 2006: 335).

Giving alms to Śvetāmbara monks
Image by Victoria and Albert Museum © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Historically, a new sect has arisen only after a new mendicant order has been founded. Certain groups, however, prove that lay communities can give rise to new sects. Strictly speaking, lay Jains are not members of sects because only monks and nuns belong to mendicant orders, which form the groupings known as sects. Lay Jains tend to follow mendicants who claim affiliation with certain monastic orders. However, new Śvetāmbara lay groups seem to have been formed principally in reaction to what members perceive as lax or unscriptural practices, whether among the laity or ascetics. Early members are noted for living by strict ascetic principles while remaining lay people. Associated mendicant orders may be established at later dates, creating a more traditional mendicant-based sect.

Chamundaraya Basti
Image by HoysalaPhotos © CC BY-SA 3.0

The Śvetāmbara lineage from which the Sthānaka-vāsins originated, the Loṅkā-gaccha was a reform movement that emerged in the 15th century. The lay man Loṅkā Śāh (c. 1415–1489) had direct access to the Jain scriptures, which he used to copy in manuscript form for monks. He made observations based on the oldest Śvetāmbara scriptures, which he believed do not mention the practices of:

• gaining merit by giving money as religious gifts for the construction of temples
• worshipping images – mūrti-pūjā – or similar ostentatious rituals involving the breaking of flowers and other acts of violence.

These were the starting points of his reforms. According to Loṅkā, strict asceticism, comprising non-violence, self-restraint and penance, and total non-possession are the keywords of the scriptures. Therefore he denounced the legitimacy of the existing orders that favoured the worship of images, and started to live as an uninitiated ascetic. He followed the oldest textual prescriptions. The Loṅkā-gaccha – ‘Loṅkā’s monastic order’ – was not founded by Loṅkā himself, but by his first disciple, Bhāṇa. He initiated himself and 45 followers of Loṅkā’s doctrine, who all took the Five Great Vows – mahā-vratas – of Jain ascetics. This happened some time between 1471 and 1476.