________________
CHAPTER 4
THE ORDER OF NUNS
Antiquity of the Jaina Order of Nuns :
Unlike the Buddhists, the Jaina order of nuns has been a distinct feature of their Church right from the times of their first Tirthankara, Rşabha. It is said that Rşabha had a following of 3,00,000 nuns under the leadership of Brāmhi and Sundarī;1 Ariştanemi, the twenty-second Tīrthankara had 40,000 nuns;2 Pārsvanātha had 38,000 nuns and Mahāvīra, the last in the list of the twenty-four Tirthankaras, had in his congregation 36,000 nuns, under the leadership of Candanā. It is difficult to verify these numbers as different texts differ in the details;5 but that the order of nuns was organised can be accepted as a historical fact.
Causes of Renunciation :
One thing, however, seems certain. It is that women, attending the sermons of the Tirthankaras in large numbers and impressed by the religious principles, embraced the life of a nun. Many references can be cited in favour of this statement revealing thereby that women belonging even to the higher strata of society renounced the world. As in the case of males, so in the case of females also, a variety of reasons led to their renunciation. Vāśişthī, the wife of a purohita, renounced the world seeing that her husband and all her sons had become monks.7 Rājīmatī, hearing the news of her would-be husband's renunciation, became a nun. Malli, the nineteenth Tirthankara, renounced the world at the same time enlightening her six suitors' by means of putting food in a statue which, when the food got rotten, gave out foul smell so as to bring home to the lovers the filthiness of human body. As against these, on several occasions, ordinary causes led to renunciation. Poțţilā, the wife of a minister, became a nun when she
1. Kalpasūtra, p. 211-12. 2. Smu. p. 66a. 3. Kalpasūtra, p. 168. 4. Avaśyakasūtra, Comm. p. 209ab; Kalpasūtra, p. 157.
5. For instance, The Samaväyānga, p. 88, says that śāntinātha, had 89000 nuns, and the comm. notes that in the Avašyaka the number is 61600.
6. Uvāsaga., p. 25; Nāyā. pp. 248-49; Niryī, p. 65. 7. Uttar. Chapt. XIV. 8. Ibid., XXII.
9. Nāyā. Chapt. VIII. BULL. DCRI.-59
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
