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508
S. B. DEO We need not go into much detail here regarding this point. One thing, however, may be noted that the Brāhmanical texts always paint the parivrājikā acting the part of a go-between, and do not enjoy a good opinion about her role in society. In fact the word 'śramaņā' is explained by Sanskrit lexicons283 as a woman without character.
It may be noted that the attitude towards women in general got stiffened in later Brāhmanical texts, and they shared the same views regarding them as did the Jainas and the Buddhists. It may be that this disregard for women was the outcome of similar expressions of antipathy in the Jaina and the Buddhist literatures, and therefore, we may say that Brāhmanical disrespect and suspicion for the woman was aggravated by Jaina and Buddhist attitude.
Whatever be the exact causes that led to the absence of nun-order in Brāhmanism, it tended firmly not to allow women to enter Sannyāsa, and the Arthaśāstra of Kautilya goes to the extent of prescribing a punishment for a man who makes a woman renounce the world.284 This led to the tying down of women to household duties.
Nuns in Christianity:
In Christianity, woman was not looked at with antipathy and was not taken to be a creature to be afraid of. She was allowed to carry on a course of chaste life to attain the final aim for which she chose life in a convent.
Even though the monastic method of life was more or less the same for both the monks and the nuns, except, of course, with a few exceptions yet, the whole mode and organisation of the nun as well as of the monk life in Christianity seem to have been far more organised and of a corporate nature than that found in the various types of Indian monachism.
The mode of life, for instance, of nuns in the 13th century in England was like this: 285
“... ... the blessed mother abbess, Euphemia (died in 1257) ...... increased the sum allowed for garments (of the sisters) by 12 d. each ...... She erected permanent buildings, new and strong, on the bank of the river, together with farmhouses.
“Regular accounts were kept regarding the expenditure and income of the Church. ... ... The revenue of the convent consisted chiefly of the rent of lands and buildings and the sale of produce, timber, etc. ............ Large
283. Medinikośa, p. 50, v. 80: Sramano yatibhede nā nindyajīvini tu trişu.' 284. "Striyarn ca pravrājayatah”-II. 19. 37. 285. F. A. GASQUET, English Monastic Life, pp. 155ff.
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