Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

SR No.: 006567
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur
Publication Year: 1972
Total Pages: 306
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

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STUDIES IN BUDDHIST AND JAINA MONACHISM
and the siddhas, and the way of sama yika, pratikramana and iriyapatha, etc. Then the monk-to-be, after worshiping the vitarā gas and revering the sadhus by oblation to the extent of his wealth, reveres the cetiyas, uproots handfuls of his hair in order to show non-attachment towards the body (usagga) and perambulating (round the teacher ?) thrice recites the sămājika formula. Afterwards, the teacher, having made him seated on his left side, reveres the cetiyas along with other monks present there. Then he, after the monk-to-be's request for initiation expressly receiving him as his disciple, gives him the rajaharana (duster), taking it from an elevated place and uttering the mangala.'
The Digambara way of becoming a monk was not so complex as that of the Svetambara. A person willing to join the Order approached the ganin, saluted the five dignitaries, viz. the siddhas, the jinas, the acaryas, the upadhya yas, and the sădhus, and then, after saluting the ganin, requested him for admission. If per nitted, he uprooted his hair and whiskers, bid farewell to his garments and adopted nakedness, This was in brief the process of joining the Digambara Church.?
We notice that the striking features of the procedure are inquiry (puccha), instruction (kahana), test (pariccha), teaching of sămāyika, etc. and paying oblation to the celijas, etc. which concur with the fatticatutthakammaupasampadā to a considerable extent. As the Pancavastuka is decidedly a later work, so it is not improbable that we may be misled to think that the propounder either borrowed ic or amended the previous one taking the natticatutthakammaupasampada as his model. But the plausibility of such misconception is revealed in no time as the very spirit of the Buddhist way of initiation, i.e. the democratic spirit, is not to be traced in it. The difference lies in the fact that the Jaina Order, even though it carries out the procedure in the presence of a good number of monks, it, like the Buddhist, does not deem it necessary to have the sanction of the monks.
(ii) Conversion of nuns In order to give a proper estimate of the position of women in the Jaina and the Buddhist Orders, it is necessary to give a brief account of their position in religious life and activities before the advent of the Mahāvīra and the Buddha and its impact on them. In this
1. Op. cit., 1 114-163. 2. Pravacanasāra, 1-7.