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S. B. DEO The Jñatādharmakathānga gives details about this ceremony from which it is clear that the function was carried on in all pomp depending on the status of the person wishing to enter the order.
The following is the account of renunciation of a prince called Megha :
When, after his coronation, the prince determined to renounce the world, his parents summoned a barber (kāsavaä) and asked him to cut the hair of the prince so as to suit his renunciation (nikkhamaņapāügge aggakese). These hair were received by his mother in a piece of cloth having the symbol of a swan (hamsalakkhana) over it. They were afterwards kept in a jewelled box.
After the hair-cut, Megha was bathed with silver and golden pots, and was asked to put on the choicest garments and ornaments. Then preparing a luxurious palanquin (siviä), he was seated in it along with his mother and his chief nurse who had held the rayaharana (broom) and padiggaha (almsbowl) brought from a shop (kuttiyāvana).10 All of them sat facing the east. Then that palanquin was carried by the relatives and servants of Megha to the temple called 'Gunasilaä' outside the city of Rāyagiha.
On reaching there, the parents of Megha requested Lord Mahāvīra to admit their son to the order as he was disgusted with worldly life (samsārabhaüvvigge). Then Megha, going a few steps to the north-eastern direction, took out all his ornaments which were received by his mother in a garment bearing the sign of a swan. His mother wept bitterly to see her son taking out the ornaments, but at the same time she advised him to exert well (jaīyavvam jāyā) and be careful in monklife (no pamāëyavvar). Then the parents, after bowing down to Mahāvīra, returned home.
Then Megha himself tore out his hair in five handfuls (pañcamutthiyam loyam), and perambulating round the Lord requested him to initiate him as his own disciple. The Lord consented to it and did likewise.
The details of the occasion differed only in point of the festive element in the ceremony. Those who could not celebrate it with pomp resorted to a simpler procedure. In this case, however, the king of that particular city promised the person, who wanted to renounce, all help not only regarding the function itself but regarding the maintenance of the dependents of that person as well.
9. of Megha, Chapt. 1., pp. 30-33; of Sthāpatyāputra, Chapt. 5, 70-72; of Mallī Chapt. 8, 117-119; of Udayana, Bhag. pp. 619 ff; of Kärttika, Ibid. pp. 738ab, etc.
10. Also in Bhag. p. 620a.
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