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MAHĀVĪRA : HIS LIFE AND TEACHINGS
of religious life as laid down by the great teacher. Gautama Indrabhūti was taken to task by the Master when he sought to claim a difference in degree in this respect between a recluse and a lay disciple? The gift of supernormal vision was no monopoly of any Order or caste or sex. In this matter, Mahāvīra made no distinction between men and men, or between men and women. He had not enjoined one set of rules for male recluses and another for female, one set of rules for male lay disciples and another for female. When he wandered about in the country, he was accompanied by male as well as female recluses
The Jain texts clearly give us to understand that the Master had not only instructed his followers to observe penances and live restrained in all ways but keenly watched how they had been progressing He also encouraged them in the study of the Pūrvas and in developing their power of reasoning and arguing The Buddhist records themselves attest that there were some able and powerful disputants among the Nirgrantha recluses ? and lay disciples :
i trasaga-dasão, Lec I ? Majjhima-Nikaya, I, p 227 ? Ibu, I, PP 374-375
