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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
215 sound mind (vuggāhiya).3 The persons devoid of these defects were said to be easy to convert (sussannappā). The minimum limit of the completion of eight years for entry to monkhood is to be found in the Vyavahāra Sūtra also.
Nobody was allowed to initiate or confirm (uvatthāveï) unfit persons, and if one did so, he had to undergo a punishment for that. The monk was also forbidden to initiate a man or a woman in order to exploit service out of him or her later on.
No doubt, the rule did exist that an auspicious day and time was to be selected for the ceremony of initiation (pavvajjā), but no exact details are to be found in the Chedasūtras as are available in the later texts like the Prakīrņakas.
The Ganividyāprakīrņaka? lays down the following rules regarding the renunciation ceremony (niskramana) of a person :
Improper
The rest.
Days: Muhurtas :
Nakşatras :
Śravaņa, Dhanisthā
Punarvasu.
Karana :
Proper Monday, Thursday and Friday. Pratipadā, Pañcamī, Daśami,
Pūrņimā, Ekādaśī. Uttarā, Bhādrapadā,
Uttarāşadhā, Rohiņā. Bava, Bālava, Kaulava, Vanija
Nāga and Catuspada. Purusa When the lagna is of calarāśi
(moving sign); or lagna of Mithuna rasi, or when the candra or moon is in conjunction with the nakşatra at one's birth.
Sakuna : Lagna :
3. Byh. kalp. 4, 7: I.A. Vol. 39, p. 264 where 'vuggāhiya' is rendered as 'who has a fixed idea.' It may be translated as 'quarrelsome persons' (from 'vyudgraha', quarrel).
4. 10, 16f. 5. Nis. 11, 84-85. 6. Vav. 7, 4. 7. Vs. 8-10, 22, 26, 44, 46, 48-54, 61, 63, 66.
8. No proper historical study of astronomy and astrology is yet made. But it seems from references in inscriptions that details as given above probably came into existence at a much later period.
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