assigned both for a house-holder and the
existing ones. For this purpose a house-holder is to observe five vows. Then
he has to follow two more principles—Right Faith and Right Knowledge—
the former means a belief in the jinas and the latter means the knowledge of
eventual liberation and of life in all existing things. More severe than this is
the code laid down for a monk.
Mahavira regarded all objects, animate or inanimate, as endowed with
various degrees of consciousness. They possess life and feel pain on the
infliction of injuries. He rejected the authority of the Vedas and objected to
the Vedic rituals and the Brahmin supremacy. He advocated, as noted above,
a very holy, ethical and elevating code of life and severe asceticism and
extreme penance for the attainment of the moksha or the highest spiritual
state.
Jaina Councils and Schisms in Jainism
By the end of the fourth century BC there was a serious famine in the Ganges
valley leading to a great exodus of many Jaina monks to the Deccan and
south India (Sravana Belgola) along with Bhadrabahu and Chandragupta
Maurya. They returned to the Gangetic valley after 12 years. The leader of
the group which stayed back at Magadha was Sthulabahu. The changes that
took place in the code of conduct of the followers of Sthulabahu led to the
division of the Jainas into Digambaras (Skyclad or Naked) and Svetambaras
(White-clAD).
Jaina Councils
S.No. Venue Year Chairman Result
1. Pataliputra Early Sthulabahu Compilation of 12 Angas
3rd by Svetambras, but 14
cen. Purvas continued to be the
bc sacred texts of
Digambaras under
Bhadrabahu (6thThera)
2. Vallabhi 5th Devardhi Compilation of 12
Cen. Kshamasramana Upangas, 10 Prakirnas, 6
ad