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The Sthaviravali of The Kalpasutra

 

The Kalpasutra of the Shvetambaras gives a list of patriarchs of their Church. This is the generally accepted list of the Shvetamabara Church. Hemachandra has followed this list except arch named in the list.

Mahivira had eleven gandharas. They knew the twelve angas, the fourteen purvas and the whole of the Siddhanta. Except for Indrabjuti and Arya Sudharman all the others had died before the nirvana of Mahavira. "The Nirgrantha Shramanas of the present day are all spiritual descendants of the monk Arya Sudharman; the rest of the ganadharas left no descendants."

"The disciple of Mahavira was
1. Sudharman
2. Jambuhnaman
3. Prabhava
4. Shayyambha, father of Manaka
5. Yashobhadra,"

The Kalpasutra now continues the list in two forms : one in a short redaction, and the other giving the Gana-kuka and Shakha founded by the various teachers. Gana designates the school which is derived from one teacher. It appears to be equivalent with the modern Gaccha. Kula designates the succession of teachers in one line and Shakha the lines which branch off from each teacher. 

In the short redaction the list of sthaviras after Arya Yashobhadra is the following :
6. (a) Bhadrabahu and (b) Sambhutaviajya
7. Sthulabhadra.
8. (a) Mahagiri and (b) Suhastin.
9. (a) Susthita and (b) Supratibuddha, surnamed
(a) Kotika and (b) Kajabdaka.
10. Indradatta.
11. Datta.
12. Sinhagiri.
13. Vajara.
14. Vajrasena.

The Kalpasutra then continues with the detailed list of the names of the disciples or ganas, kulas and khakhas, founded by these nine generations of sthaviras. Some of them are mentioned below :
6 (a) Bhadrabaju had four disciples among which godasa was the founder of the Godasa gana which was divided into four Shakhas. These were : (i) Tamraliptika, (ii) Kotivarshiya, (iii) Pundravrdhaniya and (iv) Dasikharbatika.

It will be noticed that of the four shakhas founded by Godasa, three were named after places in west and north Bengal. Names of none of these shakhas founded by Godasa, or by any other disciple of Bhadrabaju appear again in the history of Jainism.

6 (b) sambjutavijaya had twelve male disciples, among whom was Sthulabhadra who was No. 7 in the short list. Sambjutavijaya had seven female disciples also.

8 (a) Mahagiri who presumably was the senior of the two disciples of sthulabhadra had eight disciples. Of these eight disciples, we need name of two : Kodinna and Rohagutta, Kodinna's disciple Assamitta is said to have started the fourth schism of the Church in 220 A.D., while Rohagutta is said to have started the sixth schism in 544 A.D. Since it is not possible, that two persons separated by one generation only will live more than 300 years apart the Roghutta of the sixth schism must have been a different person. Among the eight disciples of Mahagiri we do not find the name of Bahula. Now Bahula according to the Nandi-sutra was the pontiff of the Jaina Church after Mahagiri. The absence of his name from the Kalpa-sutra list is therefore intriguing.

8(b) Suhastin had twelve disciples, some whom founded a number of ganas, shakhas and kulas. Some of these ganas, kulas etc. are found in the inscriptions of the Jaina ruins at Kankalitila at Mathura. These prove that the long list of names of the ganas, kulas, shakhas etc., are not fictitious, and some at least of these names, occurring in the Kalpasutra actually existed. Unfortunately, the Mathura inscriptions do not name any contemporary pontiffs. We are thus unable to establish the chronology of these leaders of the Jaina Church from these independent sources.

Among the twelve disciples of Suhastin only 9 (a) Sushita and 9(b) Supratibuddha who became joint pontiffs after suhastin, matter for this purpose because only the ganas, lulas etc., founded by them can be traced in the Mathura inscriptions. These two pontiffs founded the Kutika gana. This gana finds the largest number of mention in the Mathura inscriptions. the gana itself was divided into four kulas.

The names of the kulas are as below :

 

As mentioned in the Kalpasutra

Bambhalijja
Vacchalijja
Vanijja
Panhavahanaya

As found in the Mathura inscriptions

Brahmadasika
Vacchalliya
Thaniya or Sthaniya
Panhavahanaya

Similarly for the shakkhas, we have:

Uchchangari
Vidyadhari
Vajri
Majjhimilla

Uchchhenagari
Vajri or Veri
Majhima

 

It will be noticed that the name of one of the Shakhas is not found in the Mathura inscriptions.

Next to the Kautika gana the largest number of the Jaina inscription of Mathura mention the Varana gana. Now no such gana is mentioned in the Kalp-sutra. Kalap-sutra however mentions the Charana gana. It has been conjectured that since the Brahmi letters Cha and Va look similar, the name of the gana should be read Varana, and there is copyist's error in the Kalpasutra. If we accept this then we find the similarity in the names of the kulas of this gana as follows :

 

Kulas of the Charana Gana of the Kalpa-Sutra

a. Vacchalijja
b. Pritidharmika
c. Halijja
d. Pushyamitrika
e. Malijja
f. Arayachetaka
g. Kanhasaha

Kulas of the Varana Gana Mentioned 
in the Mathura Inscriptions 

i. (Vacchali) Yato
ii. Petavamika
iii. Pushyamitriya
iv. Aryachetiya
v. Kaniyasika
vi. Arya-Hattakiya.
vii. Ayyahisty
viii. Nadika

 

The Charana gana of the Kalpa-Sutra was founded by Shrigupta, one of the disciples of Suhastin. this Gana also had four shakhas. Their correspondence with the Mathura inscriptions is as follows :

 

shakhas of the Charana Gana of the Kapla-Sutra

a. Haritamalakari
b. Samkashika
c. Gavedhuka
d. Vajranagari

Shakhas of the Varana Gana of the Mathura inscriptions.

i. Haritamalakadhi
ii. Sam (kasiya)
iii. Vajanagari
iv. Oda

 

The similarity in the manes is striking. It seems, therefore, that the conjecture is correct and the Charana gana of the Kappa-sutra should be read as Varana gana as found in the Mathura inscriptions.

The next two pontiffs of the Church were : 10. Indradatta who was one of the five disciples of the joint teachers Sushita and Supratibuddha and 11. Datta,

Hemchandra in this Sthaviravali has completely ignored these two pontiffs. This Kalpa-sutra also does not add anything more about them except to; mention their gotras. In fact we are not even told whose disciple Datta was. the next pontiffs were, 12. Sinhagiri who was a disciple of Datta and 13. Vajra who was a disciple of Sinhagiri.

We do not know whose disciple 14. Vajraesna was.

Vajrasena is the last pontiff named in the short list of the Kalpa-sutra. The longer list gives 19 more names of successive pontiffs in a string starting with Pushyagiri and ending with Shandilya. After this the Kalpa-sutra has six gathas giving the names of six more pontiffs. The last of these six is Kshamashramana-Devarddhi the president of the Vallabhi Council. The canonical books of the shvetambaras were reduced in writing in this council. The names of these 25 pontiffs are :

 

15. Pushyagiri
18. Sivabhuti
21. Raksha
24. Vishnu
27. Vriddha
30. Dharma
33. Dhandilya
36. Kshamasharama Deshiganin
39. Kshamashramana Devarddhi.

16. Phalgumitra
19. Bhadra
22. Naga
25. Kalka
28. Sanghpalita
31. Sinha
34. Jambu
37. Ksamashramana Sthiragupta

17. Dhanagiri
20. Nakshatra 
23. Jehils
26. Sampalita and Bhadra
29. Hastin
32. Dharma
35. Nandita
38. Dharma
 

 

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Source : History of Jainas By : A. K. Roy

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