[Footnote ref 264]
There are two main sects of Jains, S'vetambaras (wearers of white cloths) and Digambaras (the naked). They are generally agreed on all the fundamental principles of Jainism. The tenets peculiar to the Digambaras are firstly that perfect saints such as the Tirtha@nkaras live without food, secondly that the embryo of Mahavira was not removed from the womb of Devananda to that of Tris'ala as the S'vetambaras contend, thirdly that a monk who owns any property and wears clothes cannot reach Mok@sa, fourthly that no woman can reach Mok@sa [Footnote ref 265]. The Digambaras deny the canonical works of the S'vetambaras and assert that these had been lost immediately after Mahavira. The origin of the Digambaras is attributed to S'ivabhuti (A.D. 83) by the S'vetambaras as due to a schism in the old S'vetambara church, of which there had already been previous to that seven other schisms. The Digambaras in their turn deny this, and say that they themselves alone have preserved the original practices, and that under Bhadrabahu, the eighth sage after Mahavira, the last Tirtha@nkara, there rose the sect of Ardhaphalakas with laxer principles, from which developed the present sect of S'vetambaras (A.D. 80). The Digambaras having separated in early times from the S'vetambaras developed peculiar religious ceremonies of their own, and have a different ecclesiastical and literary history, though there is practically no difference about the main creed. It may not be out of place here to mention that the Sanskrit works of the Digambaras go back to a greater antiquity than those of the S'vetambaras, if we except the canonical books of the latter. It may be noted in this connection that there developed in later times about 84 different schools of Jainism differing from one another only in minute details of conduct. These were called _gacchas_, and the most important of these is the Kharatara Gaccha, which had split into many minor gacchas. Both sects of Jains have preserved a list of the succession of their teachers from Mahavira (_sthaviravali, pa@t@tavali, gurvavali_) and also many legends about them such as those in the _Kalpasutra_, the _Paris'i@s@ta-parvan_ of Hemacandra, etc.