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

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The Unknown Pilgrims
is between fourteen and twenty-one years, with just one being ten years old at the time of her dikṣā.
The third set of figures comprises some recent statistics taken of the Sthānakayåsi sådhvis. Out of 100 sādhvis encounted, their status before dikşā was found to be as follows:
· 53-were unmarried girls, 16 married women. One had been abandoned by her husband and 30 were widows.48 - The average age at the time of dikşā: between ten and twenty
years. 49
Where do they stay during their halts?
F - The upāśraya: The refuge
Where do these sādhvis encounted on the road, with whom we have now a certain acquaintance, stay during their stop-overs? Their life may be itinerant, but it presupposes, between journeys, if not a stable dwelling, at least some form of shelter. This shelter is called an upāśraya, literally, a refuge, a shelter, and indeed an upăśraya is in very truth a place of refuge for the sādhvis. Taking into account local circumstances, the routes they intend to follow and the seasons, they stay in an upăśraya for periods which vary between a few days and a few weeks and in addition, every year, for the cāturmāsya. The word upāśraya is found in the Agamas, which proves that this name has a long history. 50 The Brhatkalpa-sútra expatiates on the type of modest
48 Cf. Bordiya, 1975, pp. 262-264; out of those who were married, the initiative to receive dikşå had come, in the case of six, from the husband and they had followed his example.
49 Ibid., p. 261.
50 Cf. AS II, 1, 2, 7, 1, 10,6; DS VII, 29; SthS 417a.