Aspects of Jaina Monasticism

Author(s): Nathmal Tatia, Mahendramuni
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati

Page 37

II
THE SĀMĀCĀRĪ
or The Ten Rules of Monastic Deportment
LITERARY SOURCES
yācāra; and, thus, sāmayācārika
means the practices based on popuThe topic of sāmācārī appears lar conventions that are found in the Bhagavati Sūtra 1 Sthānānga, 2 in the Smộti texts which derived Uttaradhyayanas, Āvaśyaka Nir- their validity from the Vedas.14 yukti4 and Bhāsya of Jinabhadra In the Buddhist scripture the with Cürni, 5 Brhatkalpa-Bhäsya,6 word samici which means right or Mülācāra,? Sri-Pañcāśaka-Prakara- proper conduct may be taken as na8 of Haribhadra with Abhaya- equivalent to the sāmācārī of the deva's Commentary, and Pravacana- Jainas. This is evident from the sāroddhāra9 with Vștti. Yaśo- characterization of the monastic vijaya, in his Sāmācārī- Prakarana Order as sämici-patipanno, that is, with auto-commentary gives a criti- following the right course, the cal exposition of the subject.
other qualifications in this context
being supațipanno (well-behaved), MEANING
ujupațipanno (of straightforward Explaining the expression sämā- behaviour), and ñāya-pațipanno cārī, Ācārya Malayagiri, in his (judiciously disposed).15 commentary on the Avašyaka Nir The Mūlācāra explains sāmācāra yukti10 says : samācāra stands for as equanimity (samadā), or right right conduct, that is, the set of conduct (sammācāro), or unvarying activities performed by the cul- and uniform conduct (samo ācāro), tured; the expression sāmācārī is or the conduct common to the derived from samācāra. 11
entire monastic Order (savvesim The word sämācārī may be sammāņam).16 compared with the expression Sāmācārī stands for the general sāmayācărikaḥ of the Āpastamba conduct, behaviour or deportment Dharmasūtra12 and the Gautama of the monastic Order. It has no Dharmasūtra. 13 The Mitākṣarā fixed content. It falls in three Vrtti on the Gautama Dharmasūtra categories, namely, (1) the ogha defines sāmayācārika as follows: which is derived from the 20th The word samaya stands for popular Präbhrta (called Oghaprābhrta) of convention; the practices based on the 3rd Vastu (called Ācāra) of the such conventions are called sama- 9th Pūrva, and is embodied in the