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THE JAINA ASCETIC
There are innumerable rules that should be observed when begging, with regard to which all the sects and subsects differ. A yellow-robed Svetāmbara sādhu will only accept food from Jaina, and would refuse alms from Brāhmans, Kșatriya, and even from Vaişņava and Mesari Baniyā; on the other hand, the white-clad Svetämbara sādhu will take food from Brāhmans and Kşatriya, and in Mārwār they will even accept it from a Hajāma (barber), with whom a high-caste Hindu will not eat.
My informant told me that he was most careful to go only to houses in which the door was standing open, and that he always repeated the formula : Dharma Lābha. He was not nearly as particular as the Sthānakavāsi about the boiled water he took : for whereas they would only accept water which has beer, boiled not more than four hours previously, lest new life should have been formed in it, this Svetāmbara sādhu told the writer that he generally begged enough boiled water in the morning to last the whole day, and that it was only in the rainy season he was particular to keep the water for a shorter time. They are very particular, however, not to take vegetable life; and if on the steps of a house they see a green leaf or a vegetable lying they refuse to pass over it, turn aside and go to another house. In the same way, if they see the woman of the house cleaning rice or wheat, they will not take it, but will only accept rice or grain cleaned before they came on the scene. If a mother is nursing her baby and offers to leave it to go and get food for them, they refuse, lest they should be guilty of making the child cry.
All sects agree in only taking what they may reasonably consider to be food left over after the needs of the household have been satisfied; none will take things specially prepared for them. They never sit in a layman's house, but take the gift back to the monastery, and after showing it to the Head, divide it with the other monks. They will not receive food if it is taken specially to the monastery for
