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S. B. DEO
every monk and nun. The Bșhatkalpa221 refers to a queer practice of monks and nuns drinking each other's urine or saliva (moya) in cases of snake bite, cholera (vişūcikā) and high fever.
Thus it may be said that as a rule the monks and nuns, in general, came into the least contact with one another. But in cases of emergencies and calamities the rules were made elastic enough to allow contact which did not transgress the limits and the fundamentals of moral discipline, public faith and local customs.
NUNS AND SOCIETY:
In the society, nuns came in contact with either the devoted laymen of Jaina faith or those who were antagonistic to that religion. In the case of the latter, the rules were as strict for the nuns as for the monks. No contact with heretics was allowed to them. The nuns were not allowed to share a common residence with them or have an exchange of requisites, food, or clothing. It was said that the Kāpālikas allured the nuns by magical spells, while others caused impregnation.222 It was, therefore, in the fitness of things that a system which allowed the least contact of nuns with the monks of their own Order should have deplored all contact with the heretics.
The relations of a nun with the laymen were allowed to be modestly cordial but care was taken that they did not become affectionate. Of course, a nun had to depend on the laymen for her alms, clothing, residence and other requisites, yet that did not entitle her to act as a worldly woman. Her duty was chiefly to instruct the laity and to present them a picture of pure life. Hence, no worldly activities with the laymen or laywomen such as stitching their clothes or giving them clothes or acting as a messenger or telling worldly stories or to carry or offer a seat to them or praise them for any reason, was allowed to a nun, however good or bad the laity might be.223 Even with their former relatives they were not allowed to keep contact, and anything that was likely to lower the prestige of nun-life in the public mind, as well as anything that tended to induce a nun to be worldly was not allowed.
NUNS OF THE STHANAKAVASINS:
We have noted elsewhere the cause of the rise of this non-idolatrous sect among the Svetämbaras. Along with the rise of the order of such monks, an order of nuns among them was also established.
221.5, 37. 222. JAIN, J.C., op. cit., pp. 166-67. 223. Gacchacara, 113, 115, 124, 126.
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