Jain Rup Mandan

SR No.: 001961
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 466
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Art
File Size: 27 MB

Page 18

Introduction
the upper garment or samghati, since there is no upper garment shown on the person of any Tirthankara. A dialogue between monk Kesin of the school of Parsvanatha and Gautama, the first pupil of Mahavira, recorded in the Uttaradhyayana sutra, shows that the doctrine of Parsva allowed an under and an upper garment (santaruttaro) while that of Mahavira forbade clothing altogether. Gautama cleverly bridges over this difference of the two law-givers pursuing the same end by saying that the outward symbols were introduced as they were useful for spiritual life and that, as a matter of fact, knowledge, faith and right conduct were the only three causes of liberation.18
The Brhat-Kalpa-Bhasya of Samghadāsa gani Kṣamâśramana (circa 5th-6th cent. A.D.) says that the doctrine of the first and the last Tirthankaras prescribed nudity while that of the intervening pontiffs allowed the option of both nudity and wearing garments (to the Jaina monks).19
Even this statement was only used in perpetuating the controversy between the Svetambaras and the Digambaras so far as image-worship is concerned. We however know that Mahavira himself followed, in the beginning of his career as a recluse, the order of Parsvanatha. The Acārānga-sutra, regarded as the oldest preserved section of the extant Jaina Canons, says, about Mahavira, hat for year and a month he did not leave off his robe, thereafter he moved about naked and leaving garment became a houseless sage (anagare).20
5
"The Buddhist texts refer to the existence of large numbers of Niganthas (Knotless, i.e. naked, i.e. Unattached ones) who followed the caturyāma samvara, the four-fold restraint that Jacobi and others have convincingly identified with the teachings of Parsva ... Whereas the Digambaras may reject the authenticity of the Kesi-Gautama dialogue, particularly with regard to its position on nudity, the Buddhist reference to căturyǎma forces them to confront the "discrepancy" between the teachings of Parsva and Mahavira which this dialogue seems to express."21 The above remarks of Padmanabha Jaini are noteworthy. He says that the Buddhists have failed to make clear what the term caturyāma samvara entails. The Svetămbara canon gives the first comprehensive definition. "Caturyāma is said to involve restraint from four sorts of activities: injury, nontruthfulness, taking what is not given, and possession. This list agrees with that of Mahavira except that it omits the fourth of his five vows, which specially prohibits sexual activity... Abhayadeva and Santyācārya interpreted the vow of non-possession as including celebacy... The recent research of P.K. Modi, however, shows that this interpretation is subject to serious difficulties. First, we should expect Mahavira, as a follower of the tradition of Parsva, to have initially taken the same vows as his predecessor. Yet even the Acaranga-sutra of the Svetāmbaras has him pledging only to follow a single great restraint called samayika-caritra, which entails avoiding all evil actions whatsoever. Moreover, the term caturyāma never appears in Digambara literature; Mahāvīra is invariably said therein to have undertaken the samîyika-samyama, which in the Bhagavati-sutra is shown to be identical to the sāmāyikacaritra. In the light of these facts Modi has suggested that caturyama did not imply four vows at all, but rather the four modalities (mind, body, speech and the senses) through which evil could be expressed. Thus, he concludes, both Parsva and Mahavira practised and taught the same, single, all-encompassing sāmāyika restraint, while the five vows that Mahavira set forth are no more than a specification of the main areas of conduct to which this restraint applied."22
The Buddhist Pali texts talk of certain eka-sataka Niganthas which is regarded as a testimony showing the clothed state of at least a few Jaina monks in Mahavira's time. A passage in the Acaranga-sutra states that weak men, who cannot tolerate going sky-clad but wish to practise fasting and other virtuous activities, should do so while continuing to wear clothing.23 The Sthānanga-sutra permits the use of garments under certain conditions, the Acaranga provides for begging of garments, the Uttaradhyayanasutra refers to the worry of monks about their garments being old and torn. It would seem that even Mahavira did not insist on nudity, nor did he regard the use of garment as parigraha; nakedness was not insisted upon as the means to attain salvation.24
From very early times there were two modes of conduct practised by the Jaina monks, namely, the Jinakalpa and the Sthavirakalpa. The first enforced nudity and rigorous austerities while the second enjoined a modified living with a few bare necessities including garments, alms-bowl, etc. According to the Avasyaka-curni (c. 700 A.D.) Municanda, a contemporary of Mahavira and a follower of the school of