Atonements In Ancient Ritual Of Jaina Monks

Author(s): Collete Caillat
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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ādi-bhojin); the kusila to have accepted provisions, etc., procured for him by his family (jāły=ājivan’ādi-para); · while the samsatta is alleged to have taken objects which were deposited in a precise place, for himself or for
other monks (sthapitādi-bhojin). Other passages seem to make it clear that p. 57 the latter owes his name to the fact that he keeps the company of the
former, or that he has something of all their faults.? In IV 65b 3, the Vay Țikā presents the avasanna in more general terms : as a poor disciplinarian who has no regard for the vows and Law of the samaņa, the purity of the alms, the samitis etc. : avasanne śithilatām gale caraņa-karane vrata-śramana-dharm'ādi-pinda-visodhi-samity-ādi-rūpe yasya so'rasanna-carana-karanah. As for the kusila, the Mahānisiha attributes him with so many characteristics - and, what is more, in the three fields of knowledge, faith and disciplinethat it lists nearly two hundred sorts (III). This semantic extension is clearly of a later date.
These remarks, and the commentary of Nis 13, 42ff., show that the conduct of the "proud” presented a threat to good religious morals (āyāra, äcāra). If we accept broadly the equivalent values drawn up by Vay Bh 3, 165, it is clear that the vices of these pāsatthas are incompatible with the cursus honorum (cf. Vav 3, 3 ff.).
Their knowledge and faith, however, should not be looked down upon. The commentaries allow for the possibility, in exceptional circumstances, of the bhikkhu requesting their teaching or assistance.
. Thus it is that when the Doctrine is in danger of being lost, for want of religious learned enough, the monk studies under their guidance (Vav Bh 3. 213 f. ad Vav 3, 10). Malayagiri also admits that, in case there is no qualified religious at hand, the bhikku should confess to a pasattha (ad Vay 1 35; cf. Abhidhāna 2, 425a)
In between the good religious and the layman there are other stages. The sārūviya (sārūpika) is in a way a religious "in (outward) appearance". He has the outward appearance, but lacks the feelings: sārūpika samyatarūpadharin (Vav T IV' 45a 5)2. The information concerning this figure is not always consistent. It seems he was clean shaven. Some passages lead us to believe he had a whisk (not of the prescribed type), a stick, a bowl. Elsewhere, he is described as a layman - having no whisk, begging, without a wife, but not vowing himself to chastity (abhārya, abrahmacarya) (cf. Bh 134. ad Vau 4). The Bhāsa and Ţikā of Vav 1, 35 next make mention of the bacchakada, paścātksta (cf. Ţ IV' ad Bh 3, 214). This term seems to apply 1 Communication from Pr. Schubring, who has also pointed out to me the definitions
of the nitiya. 2 Compare samyatarūpin, applied to a religious when observing the ninth or tenth
atonement (infra),
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