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 490

HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
485
instance, a broom with a long wooden staff, a curved bowl and a vessel with a handle were not permitted to the nuns. So also they were forbidden to use a roll of clothes as a support to their back, while the monks could use it.130 SCHUBRING remarks in this connection that "they were by no means sure of the chastity of the nun's thoughts".131 Besides this, they were not to use beds of soft cotton, 132 and a 'rajoharana' of white threads.133
There were some articles the use of which was restricted only to the nuns. For instance, only the nuns were allowed to carry and use a vessel coated from inside (antolittayam ghadimattaë), 134 for the purpose of easing nature at night. If a nun refused to have such a pot then various prayaścittas were prescribed for her. Not only that, but if the acārya failed to tell about it to the pravartini and the latter to her nuns, then they also had to undergo punishments,135
In certain residences, they used curtains (cilimili) to close the door so that they could live in safety and mental freedom inside the residence. We have already seen how and when it was used.
Normally they were not permitted to use hairless skins. But in cases of illness, certain skins were prescribed as remedies. In cases of titanus or piles or severe pain or in cases of the bones getting disjointed or in complete or partial paralysis, a nun was allowed to use hairless skins. The skin of a tiger or a hyena was used for patients of paralysis, and in the case of a dog-bite the nun was made to lie down on the skin of a tiger, or else that particular portion was covered with that skin. An old nun (sthavira) was allowed to use skins with hair, but only after spreading it in a way so as to make the hair face the ground, if her limbs brushed together.136
PENANCE AND FASTING:
The early texts refer to the various fasts done by the nuns. They did fasts not only of smaller duration like the 'caüttha' or 'atthama', etc. 137 but practised fasts of the duration of even one month, and we get constant references to nuns doing the 'māsia samlehaṇā'.138 Even more severe fasting, the cycle of which took years together, was practised, and we have
130. Brh. kalp. p. 5, 35-46; bhāṣya, Vol. II, 1046-48.
131. I.A., Vol. 39, p. 266, fn.42.
132. Gacchācāra, 114.
133. Ibid., 120.
134. Brh, kalp. 1, 16.
135. Ibid., bhāṣşya, Vol. III, 2362-63.
136. Ibid., Vol. IV, 3816-18.
137. Nāyā. p. 199.
138. Ibid., p. 200; see also Gacchācāra, 134,