tirthankaras/tk-19-mallinatha.jpg · 1200×1600Here the two traditions do not just differ on detail — they hold different accounts, and the difference is one of doctrine.
The Svetambara account, from the eighth chapter of the canonical Jnatadharmakatha, begins in a previous life. King Mahabala and six close friends vowed to renounce together and to keep exactly the same austerities, so that none would outdo the others. Mahabala kept the letter of the vow but not its spirit — he quietly fasted longer, always with a reason. The sincerity of his practice bound the karma of a Tirthankara; the small deceit bound the karma of a female birth.
He is reborn as Malli, princess of Mithila, and the six friends as six kings. Each comes to desire her; refused, they besiege the city together. Malli has a hollow golden statue made in her exact likeness, with a lid on its head, and every day drops into it a morsel of the food she eats. Then she admits the six kings. They see, as they think, her — and she lifts the lid. What comes out drives them back from the door. This, she tells them, is what lies inside the body you raised armies for. Their past lives return to them, and all six renounce with her.
The Digambara account holds that liberation requires complete non-possession, including of clothing, which is not open to a woman; a woman must first be reborn as a man. Digambaras therefore regard Mallinatha as a prince, and worship him as male. This question — stri-mukti, the liberation of women — has been debated in Jain philosophy for over a thousand years.
