Digambara and Shvetambara: The Two Traditions of Jainism

Jainism has two main traditions, the Digambara ("sky-clad") and the Shvetambara ("white-clad"). The names refer to the most visible difference between them: Digambara monks renounce all clothing, while Shvetambara monks and nuns wear simple white garments. The two share the same core teachings on the soul, karma and non-violence, but they differ over ascetic nudity, the spiritual capacity of women, the life of Mahavira and which scriptures are authoritative, and each has developed its own sub-sects.

How the Jain Community Divided§

Each tradition tells its own story of the split, and each places the blame on the other. The Digambara account centres on the teacher Bhadrabahu, who is said to have foreseen a twelve-year famine in Magadha (modern Bihar) in the time of the Mauryan emperor Chandragupta, around the early third century BCE. Bhadrabahu led a large group of monks south to Karnataka, accompanied, according to Digambara tradition, by Chandragupta himself, who had become a monk; Shravanabelagola is remembered as the place where they settled. The monks who stayed behind in the north, the story continues, relaxed their discipline and began to wear clothes, and so became the Shvetambaras.

The Shvetambara account dates the split to 609 years after Mahavira's liberation, traditionally 82 CE, when a monk named Shivabhuti insisted on nudity and founded the Digambara line, which Shvetambaras call the Botika.

Historians treat both stories as later explanations of a gradual process. Early sources, including the Acaranga Sutra, suggest that both naked and clothed ascetics existed in the community from early times, and the Kushan-period sculptures from Mathura (first to third centuries CE) show both. Distinct identities seem to have hardened in the following centuries, and by the time the Shvetambara canon was edited at the council of Valabhi in the fifth century the two traditions were clearly separate. An intermediate group, the Yapaniyas, whose monks went naked but who accepted the liberation of women, flourished in Karnataka in the first millennium before disappearing.

Nudity, Possessions and Ascetic Practice§

The central question was what non-possession (aparigraha), one of the five great vows described in Ahimsa and the Jain Vows, requires. For Digambaras, owning even a cloth implies attachment, care for the body and a lingering sense of shame, and so is incompatible with full renunciation. A Digambara monk (muni) of the highest grade owns only a peacock-feather whisk and a water pot, eats once a day standing up, receiving food in his cupped hands, and wanders naked. Junior grades of Digambara ascetics, the ailakas and kshullakas, wear one or two pieces of cloth, and Digambara nuns (aryikas) wear a white sari.

For Shvetambaras, clothing is a means of protecting life and maintaining discipline rather than a possession in the problematic sense, provided the ascetic is not attached to it. Shvetambara monks and nuns wear unstitched white robes, carry a bowl for alms collected from several households, and carry a woollen broom. Shvetambara tradition remembers Mahavira himself as wearing a single garment for about thirteen months after his renunciation before going naked, and argues that later ascetics, living in a degenerate age, are not expected to imitate him in every respect.

Women and Liberation§

The most consequential theological difference concerns women. Digambara teachers argue that because women cannot renounce clothing — for reasons of safety and social propriety — and because, in their view, women's bodies and natures are less suited to the most intense meditation, a woman cannot attain liberation in a female body; she must first be reborn as a man. Shvetambaras hold that women can attain liberation directly, and point to the nineteenth Tirthankara, Malli, whom they regard as a woman, as well as to the Tirthankara Rishabha's mother, Marudevi, who in their tradition was the first soul of our age to reach liberation. The debate, analysed in Padmanabh Jaini's Gender and Salvation, was conducted with considerable sophistication in medieval philosophical texts.

In practice, nuns outnumber monks in most Shvetambara orders today, and women play a central role in lay religious life in both traditions, as organisers of fasts, singers of devotional hymns and transmitters of practice.

Different Lives of Mahavira and Different Scriptures§

Mahavira's biography§

The traditions disagree on several episodes in the life of Mahavira, told in Mahavira and the 24 Tirthankaras. Shvetambaras accept the transfer of the embryo from a Brahmin woman to the Kshatriya queen Trishala, and hold that Mahavira married and had a daughter; Digambaras reject both. Digambaras also hold that an omniscient being (kevalin) no longer needs to eat, while Shvetambaras believe a kevalin continues to take food.

The canon question§

Shvetambaras accept a canon of Agamas, the texts edited at Valabhi, divided into the Angas ("limbs") and further classes of texts. Shvetambara Murtipujakas usually count forty-five canonical works; Sthanakavasis and Terapanthis accept thirty-two. Digambaras hold that the original teachings were gradually forgotten after the famine and that the Shvetambara Agamas are not authentic. Instead they give scriptural authority to the Shatkhandagama ("Scripture in Six Parts") and the Kashayaprabhrita, composed in the early centuries CE, and to the works of the teacher Kundakunda, such as the Samayasara, which emphasise the pure soul from an absolute standpoint. Both traditions accept the Tattvartha Sutra, discussed in Jain Teachings, though they read it with different commentaries.

Images, Temples and Ritual Differences§

Digambara and Shvetambara images of the Tirthankaras differ visibly. Digambara images are always nude, with downcast eyes, and are left unadorned. Shvetambara images often show a thin lower garment, have inset crystal or glass eyes and may be decorated with ornaments, crowns and silver coverings during worship. Shared pilgrimage sites, such as Sammed Shikhar in Jharkhand and some temples in Gujarat and Karnataka, have at times been the subject of long legal disputes over control and ritual, described in Jain Temples and Pilgrimage. The great festival of repentance is called Paryushana by Shvetambaras and is observed for eight days; Digambaras observe the ten-day Das Lakshana, devoted to ten virtues such as forgiveness, humility and honesty.

Sub-Sects and Reform Movements§

Both traditions have produced reform movements.

Shvetambara branches§

The majority of Shvetambaras are Murtipujakas ("image-worshippers"), organised in monastic lineages called gacchas, of which the Tapa Gaccha and Kharatara Gaccha are the largest. In the fifteenth century the Gujarati layman Lonka Shah criticised image worship as unsupported by scripture, and his ideas inspired the Sthanakavasis, who emerged in the seventeenth century and worship in plain halls (sthanaks) rather than temples. In 1760 Acharya Bhikshu broke from the Sthanakavasis to found the Terapanthi order, governed by a single acharya; in the twentieth century its leader Acharya Tulsi launched the Anuvrat movement promoting ethical vows for people of all faiths.

Digambara branches§

Among Digambaras, the Bispanthis maintain more elaborate temple rituals, including offerings of flowers and fruit, while the Digambara Terapanthis, a reform movement of the seventeenth century, use only non-living offerings and oppose the worship of guardian deities. The Taranpanthis, followers of the sixteenth-century reformer Taran Svami, venerate scriptures rather than images. In the twentieth century the lay teacher Kanji Svami, a former Sthanakavasi monk, built a large following through his teaching of Kundakunda's spiritual philosophy.

Frequently asked questions§

What is the main difference between Digambara and Shvetambara?§

The most visible difference is that Digambara monks go naked, while Shvetambara ascetics wear white robes. Underlying it are disagreements about what renunciation requires, whether women can attain liberation, details of Mahavira's life and which scriptures are authentic.

Which Jain sect is larger?§

Shvetambaras, including the Sthanakavasi and Terapanthi groups, are generally thought to be somewhat more numerous, especially in Gujarat and Rajasthan, while Digambaras are concentrated in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Rajasthan. Reliable figures for each sect are not available from the census.

Do Digambara nuns go naked?§

No. Digambara nuns (aryikas) wear a white sari. Only male monks of the highest grade renounce clothing completely.

Sources and further reading§

• Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women — Padmanabh S. Jaini, 1991
• The Jains — Paul Dundas, 1992
• Scripture and Community: Collected Essays on the Jains — Kendall W. Folkert, 1993
• Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India — John E. Cort, 2001
• The Jaina Path of Purification — Padmanabh S. Jaini, 1979