a Śvetāmbara layman named Bhāṇajī was convinced and decided to become a sadhu. As there was no guru obtainable, he ordained himself and became the first Āċārya of the Loṅkā sect. The office of Āċārya might almost be said to I have become hereditary in his hands; for though, of course, he had no descendants, yet he himself selected from the Loṅkā sadhus the one who should fill the office of Āċārya on his death; his successor did the same, and this custom exists amongst the Loṅkā Jaina down to the present day.
The Sthānakavāsī sect.Some of the members of the Loṅkā sect disapproved of the lives of their sādhus, declaring that they lived less strictly than Mahāvīra would have wished. A Loṅkā layman, Vīrajī of Surat, received initiation as a sādhu and won great admiration through the strictness of his life. Many from the Loṅkā sect joined this reformer, and they took the name of Sthānakavāsī[1] whilst their enemies called them Ḍhuṇḍhīā.[2]
The present writer had the pleasure of meeting the Āċārya of the Sthānakavāsī sect, a gentleman named Śrī Lālajī, whom his followers hold to be the seventy-eighth Āċārya in direct succession to Mahāvīra. Many sub-sects have arisen amongst the Sthānakavāsī Jaina, and each of these has its own Āċārya, but they all unite in honouring Śrī Lālajī as a true ascetic. Excepting on the crucial point of idol-worship, the Sthānakavāsī differ very little from the Śvetāmbara sect out of which they sprang, often indeed calling themselves Sthānakavāsī Śvetāmbara.
