Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni

SR No.: 001743
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 432
Language: English, Prakrit
Classification: Book_English, Agam, Canon, & Literature
File Size: 23 MB

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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
or naturall clothes, although the others could also be taken during the exceptional circumstances.
Various types of stitches (sivvaņa) like the gaggara, damại, jalaga, gomuttiga, dukkhila and egakhila were used for stitching the clothes.: Gaggara type of stitch (sivvana) was used by the nuns for their clothing, while the clothes of the householders were stitched with dańdi type of stitch. Gomuttiga was an uneven form of stitching in which the cloth was left unsewn at various places. The egakhila and dukkhila were perhaps the forms of single and double stitching. These are mentioned as improper forms of stiching and the monks were allowed to wear the clothes sewn in proper manner only (vidhi-sivvana).'
It can be easily judged that the stitched garments were used by the people and we cannot accept the statement of the contemporary Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang that "the Indians of that time did not wear sewn clothes."
Dress of the paina Monks—Leaving aside a few visuddha-zinakalpikaso who practised absolute nudity (acelakatva--pauraņavajjiya), the dress of all the Jaina monks, i.e. the avisuddha-zinakal pikas and the Sthavirakalpikas, was to be conformed to the proper monastic rules. Five varieties of the coarse-clothes, i.e. jamgiya, bhaṁgiya etc., as mentioned before, were allowed to the Jaina monks, although ordinarily they were to accept only the cotton and the woollen clothes. Monks could keep only two cotton-garments and a woollen cloth at a time. In
1. Motichandra's article on Dress in JISOA. XII. 2. NC. 2, p. 60. 3. Ibid. 4. Watters, op. cit. I, p. 148. 5. Two types of monks are mentioned among the Jinakalpikas-one who
ate in the hollow of their hands (pānipātrabhoji) and the others who accepted pots for eating food (pratigrahadhāri). Among these two also there were some who accepted clothes (sa paurana) and the others who practised nudity (pāurana-vajjiya). The last one alone was termed as visuddha-Jinakal pikas, while the others who accepted
clothes were called avišuddha-Jinakalpikas.-NC. 2, pp. 188-89. 6. NC. 2, p. 57.