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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
secular purposes. Frequently we find the royal charters being reduced to writing1 and the young men and women writing love letters to convery their feelings.2 In spite of these injunctions, expansion of the canon and a degeneration in the retentive capacities during the later centuries forced the Jaina Church to allow the monks to keep the manuscripts for the preservation of their sacred lore. The NC. clearly allows the Jaina preceptors and monks to keep any of the five varieties of the books (potthaga panaga ) or manuscripts pertaining to the Kaliya-suya in case they were incapable of remembering (gahaņa) and retaining (dharana) the whole scriptural lore.*
The following five kinds of books have been mentioned in the NC. : (i) ganlipotthaga or books square ( cauraṁsa ) in shape, (ii) kacchavī or those wide at the centre and tapering at the ends, (iii) mutthi or books square ( cauraṁsa ) or circular ( vịtta ) in form and four fingers in length, (iv) sampudapha. laga or books made by stitching the leaves at the centre aod (v) chevadi or those made with thin leaves (tanupatta ) which were longer in length and smaller in breadth.5 A general use of these books was not allowed to the Jaina monks on the ground that they easily gave rise to the killing of small insects and thus went against their vow of non-killing (ahimsa). It is, however,clear that these books were kept by the Jaina Acāryas and monks, especially the higher works of the canon, although their knowledge was orally imparted to the students. Special Facilities for Higher Studies
Due attention was paid by the monasteries to enrich and enhance the knowledge of the students with a view to
1. NO. 4, p. 10. 2. NO. 2, pp. 385-86. 3. See-N. Bhä. 3999 ( NC. 3, p. 320 ). 4. मेहाउ गहणधारणादिपरिहाणि जाणिऊण कालि सुयट्ठा कालियसुयणिज्जुत्तिणिमित्तं वा
Treatqui acara --NC. 3, p. 324. 5. NC. 3, pp. 320-21; NC. 2, p. 193; Byh. V!. 4, p. 1054. 6. "yft" for TIEYTTt u only for this agatataarat facsi-NC. 3,
p. 321.
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