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
did not practise very long fasts (naïvigittham), while in the latter half of the same year he practised severe fasts (vigittha tava). During the whole. of the eleventh year, however, he maintained himself only on a measured quantity of 'äcämla'. In the last, i.e. the twelfth year, the monk either fasted for a day and then took 'ācāmla' on the next day, or abstained from 'ācāmla' even on the second day, and broke his fast only after a fortnight or a month. Thus he went on till his death.321
Improper Types of Death:
A number of other types of death are referred to in the Sthānanga and the Samaväyänga. The former322 cites as many as twelve kinds of death. condemned by Mahavira and hence unfit for ideal monks. These forms were:
(1) valāyamarana death by falling a prey to the parisahas and thus going astray, (samyamānnivartamānānāṁ parisahādābādhitatvät maranam);
(2) vasattamaraṇa-death by going under the influence of the sense-organs (indriyānāṁ adhinatām .... gatānāṁ.... maraparh);
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(3) niyāṇamarana-death324 with the desire of achieving some worldly aim in the next birth (rddhibhogädiprärthanänidānam, tatpurvakaṁ maranam);
(4) tabbhavamarana that death at the time of which the person does a karman due to which he gets the same rebirth;
(5) giripadana-fall from a mountain;
(6) tarupadana-jumping from a tree;
(7) jalappavesa-drowning oneself;
(8) jalanappavesa-entering fire;
(9) visabhakkhana - eating poison;
(10) satthovädane-stabbing oneself to death;
(11) vehäṇasa-death by hanging; and
(12) giddhapatthe-exposing oneself to the vultures, etc.
321. Uttar. 36, 249-54; See Than. comm. pp. 95ab, 96a; Naya. pp. 46, 157, 200.
322. pp. 93b, 94ab; some of these in Acar. II, 10, 13 (p. 182): In Brahmanism also the penitents who have attained the highest state of asceticism are recommended starvation: Apastamba Dharmasutra (SBE, Vol. 2, pp. 154, 156) quoted by BÜHLER, Indian Sect. of the Jainas, p. 16, f.n. 5; See also Uttar. 36, 266; Näyä. p. 171.
323. Ibid., p. 206; See also Bhag., pp. 624a ff. p. 118b.
324. Nāyā. p. 174.