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No 1.1 Jain Temples, Monks and Nuns in Poona City
27 this can be traced back to the Muhammadan influence in Gujerat19 The Siha, belong the Svet. Jainas and the Sthå, monks whom: 1 visited belonged to the Lonka?" sect.
There were two monks in the monastery (778). It was a two storeyed building, simple in appearance and hence it could hardly be distinguised from other houses. The moak told mo that it was more a public house than a te:nple. The ground floor cɔnsisted of two halls and a small roon There was no architecture, no pomp, no finery any where in it and it is compartively a late building. On the first for there were two halls in which the monks put up.
STHĀNĀKAVASI MONKS. The distinct characteristic of these mɔnks was that they had constantly covered their mouth with a piece of cloth (UTI). Their other requisites were three चीवरs, a रजोहरण and a पात्र. Their पात्र (wooden alm 3-bowl) is not coloured but is simply polished.
These monks belonged to Lonka t The Tees is subdivided into संप्रदाय: like ऋपिसंप्रदाय, धर्मदाससंप्रदाय etc. These names are given after th: chief of that particular division. There are no ons in th:m
The peculiarity of this sect is that it is non.idolatrous. They justify this attitu le 0.2 tv) groun is. Firstly they say that originally there was no idol-worship in Jainism. Idol worship is of a later
12. "If one effect of th: Mahamnsdan conquest, however, was to drive many of th: Jaian into cl»3er unio. with their fellow dol-worshippers in the face of iconoclasts, another effe:' was to drive others away from idolatry altogether. No Oriental could hear a fellow oriental's passionate outcry against idolatry without doubts as to the righteousness of the practice entering his mind." --Heart of Jainism, p. 19 Stevenson (Mrs.)
20. "It was the name of an Ahmedabad Jain belonging to the Syet. Sect. who enployed several clerk, to copy the Jain scriptures. About AD. 1474 a Svet Satru named 9171 asked him to copy several sacred books for him: whilst reading these Lonki St was struck with the fact that idol-worship was not once mentioned in them. He pointed this out to 1957 and others, and a sharp controversy arose between then as to the lawfulness of idolatry. In the meautime a crowd of pilgrims going to 1977 arrived in Ahmedabad and were won over to Lonki Si's sid, but unfortunately they had no Sadhu among then At last a Svet layman Hror it became a Sidhu .. .. he ordained himself and became the first und of the Sect"-Ibid p. 87.