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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
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therefore, a nun was disallowed to speak even with her brother-monk,212 and even old monks were not to speak with nuns.213
Bodily contact was no doubt forbidden.214 But on certain occasions, a monk was allowed to give support to or help a nun. If she was attacked by a beast or a wild bird, if she happened to lose her way and came to bad surroundings, if she had fallen in mud or water out of which she could not get out, at the time of getting into or coming out of a boat, when she had lost her psychological balance (khittacitta), when her mind was full of pride (dittaritta), when she was possessed by a supernatural being like a Yakşa, etc. (jakkhātiţtham), when she was hysteric (ummāyapattam), when she was in trouble (uvasaggapattam), when she was involved in a quarrel (sāhikaraṇam), or was undergoing an expiatory penance (sapāyacchittaṁ), or when she had given up food and drink (bhattapānapadiyātikkhiyyam) 215_then, in all these cases the monk could help her.
It seems probable that the monk was allowed to go to the residence of nuns under certain circumstances. But he had to enter it in a proper manner, and he who acted against it or kept a stick or a staff or a broom or a mouthpiece, etc., in the way of nuns, had to undergo expiatory penance for that offence.216 Nuns were, however, allowed to go to the monk's monastery for the sake of study as well as for fortnightly pardon-seeking (pākşikakşāmaņārtham).217 A queer incident of hiding a prince in a nunnery when his relatives came to take him back has already been referred to.
Regarding study also, a lonely monk was not allowed to give lessons to a lonely nun in the absence of her 'mahattarikā' (superior nun),218 and a nun was forbidden to give instruction to either an old or a young monk at night.219 In cases of difficulty, however, a nun could go to the monks to get her doubt explained and solved.
In illness, a monk was not allowed to accept any medicine, however good or difficult to secure, brought by a nun.220 However, nursing the ill in their respective communities—i.e., a nun waiting upon an ill nun, and a monk serving an ill monk-was not only allowed but was laid down as a duty of
212. Ibid., 109. 213. Ibid., 62. 214. Ibid., 83. 215. Thān. pp. 327b, 352a; also Brhatkalpa, 6, 7-12. 216. Nis. 4, 23-24. 217. Ogha-N. 107. 218. Gacchäcāra, 94. 219. Ibid., 116. 220. Ibid., 92.
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