Later there are found no less than seven sub-sects, to which come as eighth the Digambaras, in contradistinction to all the seven Cvet[=a]mbara sects.

These two names represent the two present bodies of the church, one body being the Cvet[=a]mbaras, or 'white-attire' faction, who are in the north and west; the other, the Digambaras, or 'sky-attire,' _i.e_., naked devotees of the south.

The latter split off from the main body about two hundred years after Mah[=a]v[=i]ra's death; as has been thought by some, because the Cvet[=a]mbaras refused to follow the Digambaras in insisting upon nakedness as the rule for ascetics.[6] The earlier writings show that nakedness was recommended, but was not compulsory.[7] Other designations of the main sects, as of the sub-sects, are found.

Thus, from the practice of pulling out the hairs of their body, the Jains were derisively termed Luncitakecas, or 'hair-pluckers.' The naked devotees of this school are probably the gymnosophists of the Greek historians, although this general term may have been used in describing other sects, as the practice of dispensing with attire is common even to-day with many Hindu devotees.[8] An account of the Jain absurdities in the way of speculation would indeed give some idea of their intellectual frailty, but, as in the case of the Buddhists, such an account has but little to do with their religion.

It will suffice to state that the 'ages' of the Brahmans from whom Jain and Buddhist derived their general conceptions of the ages, are here reckoned quite differently; and that the first Jina of the long series of pre-historic prophets lived more than eight million years and was five hundred bow-lengths in height.