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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
Jaina monks to wear Buddhist apparel in order to save themselves where the king is in the latter's influence also testifies the same fact.1 The same rule was to be implemented in the region where the Buddhists were held in esteem.2 Although charity shown towards the non-Jaina monks, i. e. the Buddhists, was thought to be futile in its results by the Jainas, yet the Jaina monks in the NC. are directed not to speak to where the public is in the influence of the Buddhists." Animate disputations took place between the two in which the Jainas are always shown as coming out victorious. However, in spite of these various references to the Buddhist monks, no mention is made of the Buddhist Sangha or the monasteries inhabited by the Buddhist monks. From other sources we learn that "the integrated strength of the Buddhists had tumbled down by now, and Buddhism in India was carrying a life and death struggle with Jainism and newly revived Brahmaņism or the
Hinduism."
Classes of Ascetics
In India no higher achievement was thought to be possible without the renunciation of the worldly life. A conglomeration of the different sects of ascetics was thus to be found, the presence of which may be easily attested to from the contemporary accounts of Yuan Chwang, I-Tsing and Baņa.6 In
1. बौद्धादिना राज्ञोऽनुमतेन परलिङगेन स्थिता वृषभा युक्तियुत्तैर्वचोभिस्तं राजानं -Brh. Vr. 3, p. 879.
2. सव्वा असति उवकरणस्स सक्काति परलिंगकरणं कज्जति – NC. 2, p. 325. 3. NC. 1, p. 113.
4. Describing the various types of ascetics Yuan Chwang remarks: "The Bhutas, the Nirgranthas, the Käpälikas and Jūlikas or Chundikas (ascetics with matted hair) are all differently arrayed". Some wear peacock's tails, some adorn themselves with a necklace of skulls, some are quite naked, some cover the body with grass or blades, some put out their hair and clip their moustaches, some mat their side hair and make a top knot coil. Their clothing is not fixed and their colour varies."-Watters, op. cit., 1, p. 148.
5. Takakusu, op. cit., p. 2.
6. See the description of the hermitage of the sage Diväkaramitra where
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