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Uttaradhyayana and Dasavaikalika
conduct, one viz, caranavidhi (ch. 31)- with another conglomerate of mis. cellaneous items pertaining to all sorts of fields, four viz. Mokşamargiya (ch. 28), Karmapraksti (ch. 33), Leśyā (ch. 34), Jivajivavibhakti (ch. 36) -- with certain problems of general theory. All these chapters are more or less relevant for a study of the evolution of the Jaina technical concepts but one is specially relevant also for our present purpose. This is chapter 2 dealing with 22 parisahas. Under the technical concept of parīsaha the Jaina theoreticians comprehended the physico-social hardships which a monk might possibly encounter in the course of his everyday life. Of cour. se, vividly depicting the hardships of monastic life was an old preoccupat. ion, of the Jaina authors, Sūtrakstānga I even had one whole chapter devoted to the topic. But the technical concept of parişaha with its 22 sub-divisions was a relatively late growth. This means that the present chapter of Uttarādhyana was relatively late composition but the noteworthy thing is that the understanding incorporated in it was fairly old; the conclusion aught to be that this old understanding held the field for a pretty long time. To be explicit, we are here referring to the understanding that a monk's life has to be a life of extreme hardships, In a way the root. cause of all extreme hardships that a monk faced was his practice of wandering about all alone - which explains why this practice had to be discarded eventually. But the present chapter of Uttarādhyayana, while dealing with parişaha - called carya (=wandering about), categorically enjo. ins “The noble one should wander all alone" (v. 18), a passage we have already considered earlier. Equally revealing is its treatment of the parīsaha called nişadya (seating oneself), saiya(=taking up residence), roga (=ailment).
Thus in connection with nişadya we read, “In a cremation-ground, in a quarter permanently vacant, under the root of a tree he should sit all alone and without making any unmannerly gesture '(v. 20). The practice of a monk seating himself in such horrible places was as old as Ācārānga I but it did not continue in later times. Similarly, in connection with Saiya we read: “If he gets for residence an unoccupied quarter then whether it is comfortable or woeful he should put up with it saying to himself what havean will come in one night ? (v. 23) Here reference is to the old mona, stic practice of staying in a village for not more than one night (and in a town for not more than five ), a practice not even considered - let alone endorsed -even in the oldest disciplinary texts though mentioned in passing by a text like Aupa patika in the course of a legendary narrative (p. 8). Lastly, in connection with roga we read "on knowing that an ailment has arlsen. he. tormented by it, should put with it and should not welcome medical treatment" (vv. 32-33). Here again reference is to the old monastic practice of refusing medical care in case one developed bodily ailments, a practice gradually given up as is evident from the lengthy discussions
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