Unknown Pilgrims

SR No.: 007014
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: N Shanta
Publisher: Sri Satguru Publications Delhi
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 820
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 213

The Followers of the Ever Growing One
193
region. 163 Jinadāsa Suri wrote first and foremost for munis and thus in a direct and realistic manner, without refinement, for as a rule the Cheda-sūtras and commentaries upon them were not known to śrăvakas nor even to sādhvis. These latter were instructed in certain rules and prāyaścittas relevant to them by an ācārya or by a senior monk delegated by the ācārya for the task. 164 This text is therefore written primarily for men ascetics, who were in constant and close contact with society in an age when, enjoying as they did certain forms of royal patronage, they needed to know and, on occasion, use political stratàgems; in a province where vast activity ruled the day, for its towns and trading ports were thriving centres of trade and export.
Certain characteristics of the society of that day and age and, more particularly, of Jaina society
This was an age when monarchy was the most prevalent form of government, with all that implies, both as regards the absolute power of the monarch which extended éven to the smallest village, involving matters of administration, justice, the army, police and revenue, and also as regards the life-style of the court. The munis and sādhvis needed to have an understanding not only of kingly authority, but also of other forms of government that they might meet in their vihāras (movements from place to place), for they had to know in whom power was vested. 165
Social life was strictly regulated according to the caste-system of Aryan society, which the Jainas maintained, while at the same time adding their own system. They evidenced, on the whole, a certain disdain for the brāhmaṇas, and this mainly for doctrinal reasons, the Jainas having rejected the authority of the Vedas and possessing their
163 Cf. Sen, 1975, pp. 10-11.
164 Ibid., p. 2. This situation continuous in our own day for a large number of sadhvis. However, this text must have been known, since there exist illustrations of it on palm-leaves; cf. U.P. Shah, 1955, fig. 65, of the beginning of the XIIth century at Cambay; fig. 66, undated, of the same place.
165 Cf. Sen, 1975, ch. II.