Jain Legend : Jain Dharma ka Maulika Itihasa (3): Impact On Bhaṭṭāraka Tradition Of Temple-Dwellers Congregation

After V.N. 1000, partly due to the absence of ācāryas with some knowledge of prior canons, the ill effects of temple dwellers congregation kept on growing rapidly. By adopting fake and attractive rituals as religion, their popularity kept on increasing and they became bigger and bigger. This development greatly affected the three Jain sects i.e. Digambara, Śvetāmbara and Yāpanīya as majority of their followers kept on drifting towards temple dwellers congregation. Further the three sects started having difficulties in recruiting new monks in their congregations as well. These developments caused serious concerns of eclipse of their congregations amongst the leading ācāryas of the three sects. To countermand the growing influence of temple dwelling congregation after lot of critical thinking and analysis; these ācāryas also adopted the poplar and material based rituals of temple dwellers congregation and hence made irreversible changes in the fundamental code of conduct of Jain monks. In this way the temple dwellers congregation greatly affected the Bhaṭṭāraka tradition also.