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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
in nature, as they contain spontaneous expressions of the joy of enlightenment, reveal a ripe understanding in the case of the nuns.
Learned monks of high moral and academic calibre were appointed to teach the 'Pätimokkha' to the nuns,2 ,271 and the task of exorting the nuns (ovāda) was entrusted to a monk old in age, mature in wisdom and endowed with moral qualifications.272
505
The Jaina nuns, as we have seen, were allowed to go to the monastery for getting their difficulties solved.
Church Administration:
As with the Jainas, the admission to the Church was open to all irrespective of caste or class. Yet, in practice, certain persons were disallowed entry to the Order, and the list of women who were not admitted to the Order is more or less common with both these Faiths. Permission of either the husband or the parents was compulsory in the case of the Buddhist nuns also,273
Some of the officers of the Buddhist nun-order bear a close resemblance to those of the Jaina nun-order. For instance, the Buddhist nuns had a female officer in the person of 'pavattini' (cf. pavattiņi of the Jainas). Besides the pavattini, a senior nun was called a 'theri' who had an exact counterpart in the Jaina order of nuns. The credentials for higher office depended, in the case of both, not only on the number of years a nun remained as a part of the congregation but also on moral qualities and spiritual achievements.
Church Discipline and Its Execution:
As we have already seen, the formation of the nun-order among the Buddhists took place somewhat later than that of the monk-order, and it seems probable that the legal code governing the conduct of nuns was also of a later origin than that for the monks.274 And the rules increased according to new problems and circumstances. The monks framed the rules for the nuns, carried on the cases of the nuns who committed certain offences, and gave them instructions. The authority of delivering the judgment and punishment was also vested in the hands of the monks. No doubt a preli
271. Cullavagga, X, 6, 2.
272. Vinaya., IV, p. 51.
273. Ibid., IV, pp. 334-5.
274. "The laws for Bhikkhunis are of a later origin than most of the laws for men as the establishment of the Bhikkhunisangha took place five years later than the Bhikkhusangha."-Durga BHAGWAT, Early Buddhist Jurisprudence, p. 163.
BULL. DCRI,-64
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