History of Jaina Monachism

SR No.: 001727
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S B Deo
Publisher: Deccan College Research Institute
Publication Year: 1956
Total Pages: 616
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Principle, & History
File Size: 12 MB

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S. B. DEO The following persons were disqualified to enter the order3 : (1) a child under eight years (bāla), (2) an old person (vudpha), (3) an eunuch (pandaä), (4) a sick person (vāhiä), (5) a person devoid of limbs (jungiä), (6) a timid person (kiva), (7) a person of dull intellect (jaqda), (8) a robber (teņa), (9) an enemy of the king (rāyāvagārī), (10) a mad person (ummatta), (11) a blind person (adaṁsaņe), (12) a slave (dāsa), (13) a wicked person (duttha), (14) a stupid person (mūpha), (15) one who is in debt (anatta), (16) an attendant (obaddha), (17) a servant (bhayaë), (18) a kidnapped person (sehanipphediya), (19) a pregnant woman (guvviņī), and (20) a woman having a small child (or a young girl?) (bālavacchā).
Causes of Renunciation :
Except these, therefore, the rest of the persons could enter the order due to all sorts of reasons. Many a people renounced the world as they were full of disgust for worldly life (samsārabhaya-udvignā). Sometimes, the
3. Thān. text (p. 164b) gives but three persons out of these (viz. 3, 4 and 6), and comm. p. 165a gives this list; It may be noted that the 4th type is also interpreted as 'vātika' which means a sexually defective person : lbid. p. 164b; The Buddhist Mahavagga disqualifies the following persons for the order :-a soldier, the diseased, a thief, a breaker of prison, a robber, one who was branded, a debtor, a slave. Those who were below twenty years were not to be given upasampadā, and those below fifteen were not to be initiatedpp. 108-09 (N. K. BHAGWAT'S Ed.).
4. Bhag. comm. says that normally nobody below eight years was ordained, but Aimuttaya, being of exceptional nature, was ordained at the age of six : p. 219b.