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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
203
Th.
It may be noted, that the last two were permitted only on rare occasions under which one found it hard to maintain one's celibacy (silarakşaņādau).
The same text says that Mahāvīra had laid down only two forms of death as proper for the monks. They were the 'bhattapaccakkhāņa' and the ‘pāövagamaņa.' Both these were divided into 'nīhārima' and 'anīhārima.' The former denoted death in a place of habitation, while the latter in a cave etc., (girikandarādau).
Another classification325 was threefold: the 'bālamarana', 'pandiyamarana' and 'bālapandiyamarana.' The first was the death of the fool, i.e., one who was not self-controlled; the second that of an enlightened and self-controlled person, and the last that of the partially controlled (samyatāsamyata). These three were subdivided each into three types according as the leśyās (soul-tints) were in an impure state (thita), or were not working out a bad effect (asankilittha), or were undergoing purification (appajjavajātalese).
The same list is continued in the Samavāyānga326 which gives as many as seventeen types of death. Besides the above types, the following kinds of death are mentioned:
(1) avīï (frequent death), (2) āyantiya327 (3) ohi-marana (4) antosalla marana (death with an inner dart of sin unconfessed),
(5) kevali-marana (death of an omniscient one), and (6) chaümattha-maraņa (death of a person devoid of omniscience).
It may be noted here that such division was perhaps not based on a scientific basis as it could be increased on any scale by including many other types of death in it.
Peculiar enough, the texts do not mention the funeral rites of the monk anywhere in detail. Instead of that, they merely give examples of different persons who met death by the approved modes of death for a Jaina monk.328
325. Thān. p. 175a. 326. p. 33a. 327. Not clear.
328. Mahāvīra's parents died by fasting unto death: Acar. II, 15, 16 (p. 194); Meha does pāövagamana: Näyā. pp. 44-46; Mallī, Ibid. p. 120; khandaga: fast unto death: Bhay. pp. 126b. The oft-used phrase is:
'apacchimamāranantitasaṁlehanäjhūsanajhusite
bhattapānapadiyakkhitte păövagate-Thän. 17la. On the death of Meha, other monks performed kayotsarga and took his requisites to the guru. It is not stated how the body was disposed of.--Nāya. pp. 45, 165.
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