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
was asked to remain aloof from a woman even if she was disfigured and hundred years old for "they are to monks what a cat is to a chicken" 350
All efforts of bodily toiletting and decoration were to be avoided. Therefore, the monk was not allowed to take bath, or clean his teeth, or use flowers and scents, or fan his body 351 He was to carry the dirt on his body life-long and no attempts of external purity were encouraged.352 Use of purgatives353 or of enema, applying collyrium, playing dice, 354 and going to all sorts of recreation like dramas etc.,355 were the forbidden items of monk life.
To repeat, in short, for the maintenance of celibacy the monk was asked to avoid the following things:
(1) Using beds and seats enjoyed by women, eunuchs, and beasts, (2) to tell stories only to women, (3) to look at the forms of women and contemplate over them, (4) to sit together with a woman on one seat, (5) listening to the singing, laughing or any other sounds of women
by remaining behind a curtain or a wall, (6) recalling to memory past enjoyments, (7) eating well-dressed food, (8) eat or drink excessively,
(9) to get attached to sounds, colours, tastes, smells or touches, and (10) to put on ornaments.356
The monk was forbidden to use for religious postures places used by the householders with the reason that the women in the house were likely to force him to have sexual intercourse.357 In cases of emergencies, however, he was allowed to enter the royal harem for protection. These cases were:
(1) If the city gates were closed, or encircled on all sides and the
samaņas were unable to go out for food or water,
350. Stkr. 1, 4, 1, 5 (p. 272); Uttar. 16, 1-10; Thān. 444a; Smv. 151; Dśv. 2, 4. 7-11; 8, 54-58; Eighteenfold celibacy: Smu. p. 33.
351. Dšv. 3, 2-3; 61-64; Smv. 35b; Thän. 460b; Stkr 1, 9, 13 (p. 303), 2, 2, 73 (p. 380), etc. (transl. pp. 295 ff, 302-03, 380, 405).
352. Uttar. 2 37; Acar. II, 13, 1-23 (pp. 286-88), forbids nailcutting, washing the body, dressing the hair, etc.
353. Dśv. 3, 9. 354. Ibid. 3, 4; Stkr. SBE, XIV. p. 303. 355. Acar. II, 11, 1, 18 (pp. 183-85); Stkr. (transl.) p. 305.
356. Uttar. XVI, 1-10; Thān. p. 444a; Smu. p. 15a; Some of these in Stkr. 1, 4, 1, 5 and 13 (pp. 272-73).
357. Acār. II, 2, 1, 12 (p. 124); Stkr. 1, 4, 1, 30 (p. 275).