Digambara and Svetambara Jainism

Jainism traces its present teaching to Mahavira, the twenty-fourth Tirthankara, whom tradition dates to the sixth century BCE and many historians to the fifth. Mahavira himself is described as having abandoned his clothing, but his community soon contained both naked ascetics and ascetics who wore cloth. Over the following centuries these two ways of life hardened into the two great traditions of Jainism, the Digambara, “clothed in the sky”, and the Svetambara, “clothed in white”.

Each tradition remembers the parting differently. The Digambara account tells of a twelve-year famine in Magadha in the time of the emperor Chandragupta Maurya, around 300 BCE. The elder Bhadrabahu led many monks south to Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, where they kept the strict rule of nudity. Those who remained in the north, it is said, relaxed the rules, began wearing white cloth and compiled scriptures the southern monks did not accept. The Svetambara account places the break about six centuries after Mahavira’s death, when a monk named Shivabhuti insisted on giving up all clothing and founded the Digambara line.

Historians treat both accounts as later traditions written to explain a division that already existed. Images and inscriptions from Mathura in the early centuries CE suggest a community in which differing practices coexisted. The decisive step on the Svetambara side came when its scriptures were edited and written down at a council in Valabhi in Gujarat, traditionally dated 453 or 466 CE. By then the two traditions recognised different texts, different lineages of teachers and different monastic rules. A third group, the Yapaniyas, combined Digambara nudity with Svetambara views on women and scripture, but it died out in the later Middle Ages.

The most visible difference concerns clothing. For Digambaras, the vow of non-possession must be total: a monk who keeps even a loincloth remains attached to the world. A fully initiated Digambara monk therefore goes naked, owns only a peacock-feather whisk for gently brushing away insects and a water pot, and eats once a day, standing, from his cupped hands. Svetambaras hold that simple white robes, bowls and a woollen broom are tools of the ascetic life rather than possessions, and that Mahavira’s own followers wore cloth.

This leads directly to the question of women. Since women cannot go naked in society, Digambara teachers concluded that a woman cannot undertake the complete renunciation needed for liberation and must first be reborn as a man. Digambara women may become nuns, wearing white saris, and advance far on the path. Svetambaras teach that women can attain liberation in this very life, and they hold that Malli, the nineteenth Tirthankara, was a woman. Svetambara nuns far outnumber monks.

The traditions also disagree about scripture. Svetambaras accept a canon of Agamas written in the Ardhamagadhi language; the image-worshipping Murtipujakas count 45 texts, while the Sthanakavasis and Terapanthis accept 32. Digambaras hold that the original canon was gradually lost, and give authority instead to later works such as the Shatkhandagama and the writings of the teacher Kundakunda, whose Samayasara is especially revered. Both accept Umasvati’s Tattvartha Sutra.

Smaller differences complete the picture. Digambaras teach that Mahavira never married, Svetambaras that he married and had a daughter. Svetambaras say that Mahavira’s embryo was transferred by the gods from a Brahmin woman to the princess Trishala, a story Digambaras reject. Digambaras hold that an omniscient being needs no food, Svetambaras that he still eats. In temples, Digambara images of the Tirthankaras are nude and unadorned, with downcast eyes, while Svetambara images show a lower garment and often have inlaid crystal eyes and rich ornaments.

For lay Jains, much of daily religious life looks alike on both sides. Families keep a strict vegetarian diet that also avoids root vegetables, many avoid eating after sunset, and both communities give food and support to wandering monks and nuns. The great festival of the rainy season, in August or September, differs only in its timing and length: Svetambaras keep the eight days of Paryushana, while Digambaras follow with the ten days of Das Lakshana Parva, devoted to ten virtues such as forgiveness, humility and honesty. Both end by asking pardon of every living being for any harm done during the year.

India’s 2011 census counted about 4.5 million Jains, without dividing them by tradition. The Svetambaras are generally considered the larger group and are strongest in Gujarat, Rajasthan and the commercial centre of Mumbai, as well as in the diaspora in Britain, North America and East Africa. Digambaras are concentrated in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, and naked Digambara monks, though highly revered, are far fewer than Svetambara monastics.

Each tradition has its own subdivisions. Among Svetambaras, the Murtipujakas worship in temples, while the Sthanakavasis, whose roots go back to a fifteenth-century reform, and the Terapanthis, founded in 1760, reject image worship and are known for monastics who wear a mouth-cloth. Among Digambaras, the Bisapanthis and Terapanthis differ on temple ritual, and the small Taranapanthi group venerates scriptures rather than images.

Each tradition has its great pilgrimage sites: the colossal statue of Bahubali at Shravanabelagola for Digambaras, anointed in a ceremony held about every twelve years, and the temple-covered hill of Shatrunjaya at Palitana and the marble temples of Ranakpur and Mount Abu for Svetambaras. Some shared sacred places, such as Sammed Shikhar in Jharkhand, have been the subject of long legal disputes over their management. Yet the two communities also cooperate in charities, education and in defending Jain interests, and many lay Jains see the distinction as one of custom rather than a barrier.