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XLVIII: GACCHĀCĀRA PRAKĪRṆAKA
Jattha hirannasuvannam hatthena parāṇagam pi no chippe Karanasamappiyam pi hu nimisa-khaṇaddham pi, tam Gaccham || (Gacchācāra, verse 90)
Conclusion
In the Gacchācāra Prakīrṇaka, too, like the works of Acārya Kundakunda and Ācārya Haribhadra, the tendency of the monks towards laxity and wilfulness has been criticised. It is difficult to say that the Jaina monastic orders had sufficiently reformed due to the criticism by these Acaryas because had it been so, the traditions of Caityavāsīs and the Bhaṭṭārakas must have ended. However, according to the inscriptional as well as literary evidence it is clear that these traditions were not only alive and well up to the 8th or ninth century but growing in their influence. As a result of an unhindered growth of these unmonastic traditions the lax and wilful tendency also grew gradually but steadily. As we have already said earlier, the present work Gacchācāra must have been composed around this time. Actually, Gacchācāra is a treatise that not only instructs the Jaina monastic order to adhere to and abide by the scriptural injunctions as far as their monastic conduct is concerned but also enjoins them to refrain from lax and wilful conduct. A proper study of this work is essential for the monks in order that they may glorify themselves by observing canon-prescribed monastic conduct in letter and spirit.
Varanasi,
12 December, 1994.
Sagarmal Jain Suresh Sisdiya
(TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY COL. D.S. BAYA 'ŚREYAS'
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