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478
Clothing:
S. B. DEO
Nudity was never advocated for nuns either by the Svetāmbaras88 or the Digambaras. We have already noted the story of Sivabhuti who did not allow his sister to go naked. The Digambaras offer the following explanation for this. They say that "women are forbidden from accepting severe types of asceticism such as nakedness, because they are constitutionally unfit. There is a growth of subtle, living beings in their organs. of generation, between their breasts, in their navel and armpits; their mind is fickle and devoid of purity; they have monthly courses; and they cannot concentrate undisturbed" 89
The texts of the Angas give primary rules about the clothing of the nuns, and everywhere the nuns are pictured as wearing clothes.
How the Clothes were Obtained:
The principal rules of begging clothes at the houses of the laymen were the same for both the monks and the nuns.90
Regional Limits to Begging of Clothes:
They were not to go beyond half a yojana for obtaining clothes. The clothes were accepted there and then, and no future promises were accepted.
Clothes Unfit for Nuns:
Such clothes as were bought, washed, dyed, cleaned or perfumed by the donor for the sake of the nuns; expensive clothes made of either wool, furs or cotton; those which were embroidered or interwoven with gold and were ornamental; which were endowed with animal furs; and those which contained bulbs or seeds or eggs or living beings-all these were deemed unfit both for a monk as well as for a nun.93
88. Ibid., 5, 19; See Abhidhanarajendrakosa, Vol. 1, pp. 192-93; Brh. kalp. bha. Vol. IV, 4148:
Niyama sacela itthi, cālijjati sañjamā viņā teṇa:
Women have always to be with clothes. Without clothes they go astray from the path of self-control.
89. Suttapahuḍa of Kundakunda, vs. 22-25: UPADHYE, A. N., Pravacanasära, Intro. XXX, and Text: III, 6-14.
90. Acar. II, 5, 1, 6-9 (pp. 158-59).
91. Ibid., II, 5, 1, 2 (p. 157).
92. Ibid., p. 159.
93. Ibid., II, 5, 1, 3: 4: 5: 10: 11: 12: 13: 15 (pp. 157-61).
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