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

Page 156

HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
151
Under all these circumstances, however, he had to take permission of the guru before leaving the gana.
(b) Kula :
The monk was expected to owe allegiance to the kula of which he was a member. We have already seen that the kulas formed the gana.
No details regarding this unit are to be found in the texts of the Angas or even the Mülasūtras. The commentators, however, explain it either as a group of disciples of a particular ācārya (egāyariyassa santai),54 or equate it with anvaya or gaccha.55
(c) Sambhoga:
Even in the case of the sambhoga the texts fail to give any explanation, but give rules regarding the formation of this group.
The sambhoga is explained by the commentators56 as 'ekamandalikabhoktstva', by the Dictionary57 as 'a group of monks bound together by identical sāmācāri and taking food together', and by JACOBI58 as 'a group of monks begging alms in one district only'.
The formation of the sambhoga allowed the following concessions to its members :
(1) Uvahi-pertaining to exchange of requisites, (2) Suä-regarding common reading and study of the sacred texts, (3) Bhattapāņa-exchange of food and drink, (4) Añjalipaggaha-showing respect to each other, (5) Dāyaņe-sending disciples for further study to another monk of
the same sambhoga, (6) Nikāye-calling another monk of the same sambhoga for the sake
of exchange of foodstuffs, requisites, and disciples etc. (7) Abbhutthāņa-getting up in respect,
der,
54. Bhag. comm. p. 382b. 55. Uttar. comm. p. 168b; Thān. p. 516a. 56. Uttar. comm. p. 333a; Thān. p. 139a. 57. Paiyasadda, p. 1062.
58. SBE, Vol. XIV, p. 167, f.n. 1. (Uttar, 29, 33); Sambhoga mentioned in Acār. II, 66, 12; II, 106, 20. 24 (See SCHÜBRING, Die Lehre der Jainas, p. 160); Thān. 139a, 300a, 444a; Svm. p. 21b; Uttar, 29, 33.
JACOBI seems to be right for we do get epigraphical evidence, though of a later period, showing that bhoga was a territorial unit and the officers in charge of it were called as 'bhogikas-See, SANKALIA, Archaeology of Gujarat, pp. 196-97.