Murtipujaka

[7] According to Loṅkā, re-shaping the land to build temples leads to the destruction of microscopic organisms, and pūjā rituals entail "subtle forms of harm" through material offerings like flowers or incense.

The Śvetāmbara Sthānakavāsī and Terāpanthī sects accept this impulse, agreeing with Loṅkā that the most appropriate form of religious practice is mental worship (bhāva-pūjā), which is already performed by mendicants because the reliance on images and temples is indicative of an attachment to objects that is "spiritually counterproductive".

"[2] Bhadraṅkaravijaya also argued that given the current cosmic age, laity can't contemplate the Tīrthaṅkaras without the assistance of some mental prop or image.

Laypeople will hold a similar cloth in front of their mouths during certain rituals, where it is intended to "prevent pollution of the sacred objects by [the laity's] breath.

Emerging between the 11th and 16th centuries, each of the gacchas claimed to represent a "truer" version of Jainism than another, and they often hotly contested one another in polemical debates and writings that argued against the laxity of mendicant regulations.

[4] According to Flügel, some Upakeśa Gaccha scholars like Devagupta Sūri considered "injury to living beings committed during the construction of temples and in the preparation of pūjā with flowers, fruits and water as a form of unavoidable or occupational violence (ārambhajā himsā).