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24
Early Jainism
wanders all alone', in Chapter 2 (v. 18) 'The poble one should wander all alone'. In chapter 19 (vv. 77 etc. ) the life of a lonely wandering mook is compared to that of an animal freely loitering in a wilderness, Yet we are elsewhere (11. 14) told Only he who permanently stays at the quarter of the preceptor is in a position to receive education. Here reference could be to the fairly old practice of a student staying with his preceptors for a period that was absolutely necessary for the former's education. But in chapter 17 more advanced conditions seem to have been envisaged, for here some of the epithets ascribed to a bad monk are one who does not take proper care of the acarya and upadhyāya '(v. 5), 'one who discards his acarya' (v. 17), 'one who wanders from gana to gana (gaña=monastic unit)' (v. 17). Certainly, in the course of time it became a common practice for monks to wander about in the form of a unit functioning under the headship of an ucarya assisted by a staff made up of upadhyāya etc.) this replaced the old practice of a young student staying with his preceptor just for the duration of his education and it is this that seems to be reflected in the chapter in question. Similarly, only in the light of the latterday practice can one appreciate the following complaint made against bad disciples : 'They have been given lessons, they have been supplied with equipment, they have been nourished with food and drink, and yet they scatter away in all directions as do swans that have grown wings' (27.14). However, an intermediate stage seems to have marked the course of evolu. tion under considration. Thus in Chapter 32 we read: “ One should look for food that is measured and acceptable, one should look for a companion who is skilled in matters intellectual. ... But in case one fails to have companion superior to oneself in merit or equal to oneself then one should wander alone ......" (vv. 4-5). So at some stage the practice must have been for a monk to seek the company of another one superior or equal to himself; (of course, a monk can receive the company of another one superior to himself only if this latter monk consents to have the company of another one inferior to himself, but let us not press that point). But even at this stage the old practice of wandering alone must haye appeared to have merits of its own, as is evident from chapter 29, which enumerates (in para 39) the advantages of doing without a companion just as it enumerates (in para 40) those of doing without food (i.e. of fasting); thus runs the former set of advanteges: “One doing without a companion generates loneliness for himself, and a lonely person enjoying his loneliness experiences little noise, little dispute, little quarrel. little passion, little mutual-abuse." Evidently the practice of wandering about along with a companjon was not an unmixed blessing; nay, it did not even have much survival value and the disadvantages of
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