________________
232
THE JAINA ASCETIC
their day closes about nine o'clock, when they perform Santhārā Porasi, spending about an hour asking the protection of Arihanta, Siddha, Kevali, and Sadhu.
Nuns.
Female ascetics (sādhvi) are held in the greatest reverence by the Jaina, and their lives follow much the same lines as those of the male ascetics. They always wander about in twos or threes and have of course their own Apăsarā. At their initiation their hair is shaved and pulled out just like a monk's, and the mantra is whispered to them by a sadhvi instead of a sadhu.
They choose the head of their Apăsaro generally for learning; if she be strong enough, she wanders homeless just like the other nuns, but if old and feeble, she is allowed to continue to live in the same nunnery without change.
A nun's day much resembles that of à monk. The stricter ones will only beg once, eat once, and sleep for a few hours in the twenty-four; but these more rigid rules are falling into abeyance, and the nuns the writer has met confess that they do not now rise as they should after a few hours sleep to meditate twice in the night.
The funeral of a nun 1 is carried out with the greatest pomp, and during it childless women strive to tear a piece from the dead sadhvi's dress, believing it will ensure their having children, whilst men anxiously endeavour to acquire merit by carrying the palanquin in which the corpse, covered with a rich cloth, is borne, boys from the Jaina school acting as a guard of honour.
In all the neighbouring towns also, directly the telegram announcing the nun's death is received, a crier would be sent out to tell the news and to ask the Jaina to observe Amara, i. e. not to grind or pound grain or do anything
1 A full description of a nun's funeral is given in the writer's Notes on Modern Jainism, Blackwell, 1910, pp. 28 ff.
