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No. IV | RULES FOR ASCETICS IN JAINISM, BUDDHISM & HINDUISM. 71
bansas and Jnana Vairājnya Sannyāsis, who never wear any clothes. 11 In the Tantras also we find naked Avadhuts. 1 2 In Siva Purāna, Kurma Purāna, Padma Purāna, etc, we find stories of Hindu naked saints moving about freely in the courts of kings, or in hermitages before females and begging alms from female householders. 18
It is only at a very late stage that nudity became an object of repugnance to a certain section of the Hindus, and we see a rule in the Hindu Smriti that one should practise purification when one sees a naked saint. Nakedness became associated with Jainas only, forgetting that the highest gods and goddesses of the Hindus like Siva and Kāli are naked, and the great sages of old were advocates of nudity when they reached the fourth stage of the Asramas prescribed in the Shastras for the Hindus.
There are rules for Paribrājakas following Hinduism in the Vedio period for. observing nudity. In Apastam ba Dharmasutra we find :
“ Tasya muktamāchchhādanam vihitam."
"Sarvatah parimoksameke." In Vaikhānasa Dharmaprasna we read :
“Paramahansa nama sāmbara digambara pa." As regards the practice of non-washing the body, we find that Asnāna is one of the Mulagunas of the Jainas. . "Nhānādi bajjanena ya vilitta jalla malaseda sabbangam. Anhānam ghoragunam samjamadugapalayam munino."
(MULACHARA) i.e., a Yati should desist from bathing, etc., and his body may
(11) For a detailed description and quotations see my work entitled
"The Digambara Saints of India" Pages 40-44. (12) "feriastar atenuar meat waa." (Nirvāna Tantra) Also "gayaa fafaa: Tres faign: 1
सचेलश्चापि दिग्वासा विधियोनिविहारवान् ॥
agiot adqiten gertat faciat: 1" (Mundamālā Tantra. Patala II.) (13) See my “The Digambara Saints of India " Chapter IV,
