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The Ascetic Life of Mahavira
Ohāṇasīyam, Ayārānga Sutta
[The Ayārārga ( Ācārānga ) is the first Jaina Anga. It contains important rules for the Jaina monks and nuns. The text is a mixture of prose and verse and consists of exhortations and warnings. The rules of conduct as laid down in it contain also the rules of decorum and etiquette, but no penal laws. These are classified in the Sutra under such general heads as begging, walking, modes of speech, entry into other's possessions, postures, place of study, etc. The Ohāņasūyam (1.8), reproduced below, depicts in a very graphic manner the ascetic life of the 'Great Hero' Mahavira. Ācārānga Sutra has been edited for the P.T.S., London (1882), and translated into English by Jacobi in SBE, vol xxii. It has also been edited by Schubring, Leipzig, 1910, and translated into German by him in Wrote Mahaviras. ]
As I have heard it, I shall tell how the Venerable Ascetic exerting himself and meditating, after having entered the order in that winter, wandered about. ...
For a year and a month he did not leave off his robe. Since that time the Venerable One, giving up his robe, was a naked, world-relinquishing, houseless (Sage). ...
Giving up the company of all householders whomsoever, he meditated. Asked, he gave no answer ; he went, and did not transgress the right path. ...
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