Gaina sutras

Author(s): Hermann Jacobi
Publisher: Clarendon Perss

Page 21

INTRODUCTION.
XXV
(passim); and Professor Kern, in his History of Buddhism in India. In order to show to what extent the life of Gaina monks is but an imitation of the life of the Brahmanic ascetics, I shall now compare the rules given to the latter in Gautama's and Baudhâyana's law-books1 with the rules for Gaina monks. In most cases the Buddhists conform to the same rules; this will also be briefly noticed.
II. 'An ascetic shall not possess (any) store?.? The Gaina and Buddhist monks are also forbidden to have anything which they could call their own. See the fifth vow of the Gainas (aparigraha). Even those things which the Gaina monk always carries about himself, as clothes, alms-bowl, broom, &c., are not regarded as his property, but as things necessary for the exercise of religious duties (dharmopakarana).
12. (He must be) chaste.' This is the fourth great vow of the Gainas and in Baudhâyana, the fifth of the Buddhists.
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13. He must not change his residence during the rainy season3. Bühler remarks in a note: 'This rule shows that the Vasso of the Bauddhas and Gainas is also derived from a Brahmanic source.'
14. 'He shall enter a village only in order to beg.' The Gainas are not so strict in this respect, as they allow a monk to sleep in a village or town. However he must not stay too long. Mahâvîra did not stay longer than one night in a village or five nights in a town 5.
15. He shall beg late (after people have finished their meals), without returning twice. The Gaina monks collect food in the morning or at noon, probably to avoid meeting with their rivals. They generally but once in a day go out begging; but one who has fasted for more than one day may go a begging twice a day".
1 See Bühler's translation, Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii, pp. 191, 192. The numbers in the text refer to the paragraphs in Gautama's third book. The similar passages of Baudhâyana are referred to in the notes.
3 Baudhâyana II, 6, 11, 20.
2 Compare Baudhâyana II, 6, 11, 16. * Âkârânga Sûtra II, 2, 2, § 6.
5 Kalpa Sutra, Lives of the Ginas, § 119. Baudhâyana II, 6, 12, 22.
7 Kalpa Sûtra, Rules for Yatis, § 20.