CDS (II) 2023 General Knowledge · Question 16 of 120

Correct — B, It refers to monks, who migrated to the south of Vindhyas in 4th century BCE. That statement describes the other sect. In the traditional account, a twelve-year famine struck Magadha during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya in the late fourth century BCE. Acharya Bhadrabahu led a body of monks south into Karnataka, while Acharya Sthulabhadra headed those who stayed behind in the north. The southern group held to the stricter discipline, including nudity, and became the Digambara — the sky-clad. The northern group took to white robes and became the Shvetambara. So the migration south belongs to the Digambara story, and attaching it to the Shvetambara is the error the stem is asking you to find. The other three statements are all true of the Shvetambara: the name itself means white-clad, they preserve and accept a canon of Agamas, and they hold that a woman may attain liberation without first being reborn as a man.

• (a)It refers to monks, who wear white clothes. — This is correct, so it cannot be the answer to a 'not correct' question. Shvetambara is Sanskrit for white-clad, from shveta meaning white and ambara meaning garment, and it is the practice that names the sect.
• (c)They recognized the existence of canonical texts including the 12 Angas. — Also correct. The Shvetambara preserve a canon of Agamas, codified at the council of Vallabhi, and recognise the twelve Angas — while holding that the twelfth, the Drishtivada, has been lost. The Digambara are the ones who maintain that the original teachings did not survive at all.
• (d)They believed that women can also attain salvation. — Correct as well, and it is one of the sharpest doctrinal differences between the two sects. The Shvetambara accept that women can attain liberation — the nineteenth Tirthankara Mallinatha is a woman in their tradition — whereas the Digambara hold that a woman must first be reborn as a man.

Jainism split into two great sects, Digambara and Shvetambara, over discipline and over what survived of Mahavira's teaching. The differences run together: clothing, since Digambara monks of the highest order go naked while Shvetambara monks wear white; canon, since the Shvetambara preserve the Agamas and the Digambara reject them as reconstructions; the liberation of women, accepted by the Shvetambara and denied by the Digambara; and iconography, since Shvetambara images are ornamented and glass-eyed while Digambara images are plain and unclothed. Shvetambara communities today are concentrated in Gujarat, Rajasthan and coastal Maharashtra.

A negative stem asking which statement is not correct is really four true-or-false questions, and the efficient method is to confirm the easy ones rather than hunt for the error. The name gives statement (a) at once, and the women-and-liberation point and the Angas point are the two facts every syllabus attaches to the Shvetambara. That leaves the migration, and the migration is the classic swap: Bhadrabahu going south is the founding story of the Digambara, and it comes with a famous coda in the tradition that Chandragupta Maurya himself went with him and ended his life at Shravanabelagola. Treat any statement about going south of the Vindhyas as a Digambara marker. It is worth adding that all of this is traditional narrative rather than documented history — the dates and even the sequence are debated, and the Shvetambara's own account instead traces the Digambara to a later rebellion by a monk named Sivabhuti.

• Shvetambara means white-clad, from the Sanskrit shveta for white and ambara for garment; Digambara means sky-clad.
• In the traditional account Bhadrabahu led monks south to Karnataka during a twelve-year famine in Magadha under Chandragupta Maurya, and that group became the Digambara.
• Sthulabhadra headed the monks who remained in the north, and their line became the Shvetambara.
• The Shvetambara preserve a canon of Agamas and recognise the twelve Angas, holding the twelfth to be lost; the Digambara reject the Shvetambara canon.
• The Shvetambara hold that women can attain liberation and count the nineteenth Tirthankara Mallinatha as a woman; the Digambara hold that rebirth as a man is required first.

• Attaching the southward migration to the Shvetambara; it is the Digambara founding story.
• Assuming both sects treat the Angas alike — the Shvetambara accept them, the Digambara do not.
• Reading the traditional famine narrative as settled history; the sects themselves give different accounts of how the split happened.

As a 'which statement is not correct' item on one sect, as a Digambara-versus-Shvetambara contrast, or through the names of the Acharyas and councils involved.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  According to the traditional account, the Jain monks who migrated to the south under Bhadrabahu during the famine in Magadha came to be known as

  • (a)Shvetambaras
  • (b)Digambaras
  • (c)Sthanakvasis
  • (d)Terapanthis

  Answer(b) Digambaras — the sky-clad, who kept the stricter discipline. Those who stayed in the north under Sthulabhadra became the Shvetambaras.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following is a doctrinal difference between the Shvetambara and the Digambara sects of Jainism?

  • (a)Whether ahimsa is binding on lay followers
  • (b)Whether a woman can attain liberation
  • (c)Whether Mahavira was the twenty-fourth Tirthankara
  • (d)Whether the soul exists at all

  Answer(b) Whether a woman can attain liberation — the Shvetambara accept that she can, the Digambara hold that she must first be reborn as a man. The other three points are common ground.