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Digambara (/dɪˈɡʌmbərə/; "sky-clad") is one of the two major schools of Jainism, the other being Śvetāmbara (white-clad). The Sanskrit word Digambara means "sky-clad", referring to their traditional monastic practice of neither possessing nor wearing any clothes.[1]
Digambara and Śvetāmbara traditions have had historical differences ranging from their dress code, their temples and iconography, attitude towards female monastics, their legends, and the texts they consider as important.[2][3][4]
Digambara monks cherish the virtue of non-attachment and non-possession of any material goods. Monks carry a community-owned picchi, which is a broom made of fallen peacock feathers for removing and thus saving the life of insects in their path or before they sit.[1]
The Digambara literature can be traced only to the first millennium, with its oldest surviving sacred text being the mid-second century Ṣaṭkhaṅḍāgama "Scripture in Six Parts" of Dharasena (the Moodabidri manuscripts).[5] One of the most important scholar-monks of the Digambara tradition was Kundakunda.
Digambara Jain communities are currently found mainly in most parts of North India in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, parts of south Maharashtra and Karnataka.[4][6] According to Jeffery D. Long, a scholar of Hindu and Jain studies, less than one fifth of all Jains in India have a Digambara heritage.
- ^ a b Jeffery D Long (2013). Jainism: An Introduction. I.B.Tauris. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-85771-392-6.
- ^ Paul Dundas (2002). The Jains. Routledge. pp. 53–59, 64–80, 286–287 with footnotes 21 and 32. ISBN 978-0-415-26606-2.
- ^ Kristi L. Wiley (2009). The A to Z of Jainism. Scarecrow. pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0-8108-6821-2.
- ^ a b Jyotindra Jain; Eberhard Fischer (1978). Jaina Iconography. BRILL Academic. pp. 1–2, 8–9, xxxiv–xxxv. ISBN 90-04-05259-3. Archived from the original on 2 July 2023. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
- ^ Paul Dundas (2002). The Jains. Routledge. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-0-415-26605-5.
- ^ Jeffery D Long (2013). Jainism: An Introduction. I.B.Tauris. pp. 60–61. ISBN 978-0-85771-392-6.