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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
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life of renunciation. From the references, it seems that the majority of the nuns had studied the sacred texts and the greater portion of their daily routine was spent in study. Thus, it may not be an exaggeration to say that they also played their part in handing down the texts by oral tradition. The actual instance of this ripe understanding and wisdom which took the role of a peace-maker, can be had in the case of the nun Paümāvaï who averted the war between a father and a son.2 290
Besides the work of preaching the public, the order of nuns proved a solace to destitute women who embraced nunhood when harassed by the pangs of worldly life. Heart-broken widows, forsaken wives, and sonless mothers, all these sought refuge in the life of a nun. The presence of nuns, like that of monks, really supplied models of pious life for many in the society.
The Church on the other hand took all precautions, but "the abuses. imputed by the general public have seldom failed to carry some effect on the prevailing customs of the sangha". Hence least contact with the dependence on the society was the rule. The nuns were not to do anything that was likely to give rise to suspicion or scandal among the people, and in such cases her punishment was increased. As a matter of fact many rules regarding nuns reveal basically a keen observation in the psychology of the common people. On certain occasions, the Church was ready to face the criticism of the public as in the case of the raped nuns, and it laid down that even monks should go to the extent of punishing the bad characters.
Thus, on the whole, the nuns played a quiet and a minor but significant role in the life of the Church. Remaining subordinate to the monks, they did their work as the preachers of the gospel to the best of their ability and earned the title of being the best repositories of older traditions with an ideal simplicity of life.
290. Ibid., Tikā 9, p. 132a.
291. Durga BHAGVAT, op. cit., p. 179.
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