________________
SCHOOL
TIONAL
OF
SELF STUDY IS THE
SUPREME AUSTERITY,
N STUDIES
It might also be worth emphasizing certain positive aspects of India's Jain communities. Almost throughout Indian history, India's Jains have played a leading role in the intellectual life of the country. They have contributed in no small measure to the progress of science and mathematics in the subcontinent, and have also made significant contributions in the cultural realm. Particularly concerned about living in harmony with nature and other living beings, some of their value systems can teach other Indians much about how life ought to be lived. Women have always been an equal partner in such activities.
5.4 Asceticism
The women monastic tradition in Jainism is the most ancient in the history of monasticism throughout the world, which is exclusively Indian. Although it has been affected by historical circumstances and has undergone some modifications in the course of the centuries, it has remained surprisingly the same. The Jaina nuns were very numerous in the past and still number almost ten thousand out of a total ascetic population of 13000. Most are in the Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi and vicinity and Punjab regions, but one comes across them on all the main roads. It is a unique monastic tradition in India as Hindu religious traditions have no female monasticism. There have been a few isolated cases of holy women leading an ascetical life, but not a monastic tradition. The Buddhist nuns began at a later period than the Jaina nuns; they quickly disappeared from India, and the original tradition was considerably modified according to time and place.
The Jaina woman ascetics are seen as articulate and vital representatives of the religious order; and the laity considers interaction with them a great honour. Recently Mrgāvatī (Svetämbara mürtipujaka). Acārya Chandana (Svetambara Shanakavāsi) and Aryika Gyanamati (Digambara) assume even more influential positions in their respective communities than male ācāryas. This age old practice of sadhvis induces a significant bounding between themselves and those who feel privileged to be able to provide the rudiments of worldly sustenance to them in exchange of a consistent and continuous flow of spiritual sustenance.
The motivations for joining the ascetic life can be varied. In Jainism a high premium is given to the very idea of renunciation and the ascetic life as the path of salvation, especially in the upbringing of the female child. The woman ascetics, the sadhvis or the aryikās, who have renounced their personal materialistic, desires so as to achieve a common goal of lasting
Page 176 of 317
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
