________________
જૈન યુગ
માર્ચ-એપ્રિલ ૧૯૬૦
right in explaining it as the traditional conduct.
While explaining the word anudhammiya Śilänka the commentator of Achārāřga says :अनुपश्चाद्धार्मिकम् अनुधार्मिकम् अपरैरपि तीर्थकृद्भिः समाचीर्णमित्यर्थः । तथा चागमः-से बेमि-जे य अईया जे य पहुपन्ना जे य आगमेस्सा अरहंता भगवंता जे य पब्वयन्ति जे य पव्वइस्सन्ति सव्वे ते सोवहिधम्मो देसिअन्वोत्ति कटु तित्थधम्मयाए एसा अणुधम्मियत्ति एगं देवदूसमायाए पबइंसु वा पव्वयंति वा पव्वइस्सन्ति व
गरीयस्त्वात् सचेलस्य धर्मस्यान्यैस्तथागतैः।
शिष्यस्य प्रत्ययाच्चैव वस्त्रं दधे न लज्जया ॥ Here it is clear that the word 877
a means the traditional conduct. It is clearly said in the text that Mahāvīra had a cloth, but it was not used for the covering of his body. So the question is: then why did he keep the cloth with him ? The answer is given by the word '37TTI i.e. in keeping a cloth he only followed a tradition. And what was that tradition? The commentator has quoted an Agama which means that it is a tradition that every tirthankara keeps a devadūsa-devadūsya at the time of his pravrajya. It is clear that though it was of no use to him still he kept it only to follow a tradition.
We know from the Buddhist text Mahāvagga (1. 1. 12) that it was customary for a novice to keep uttariya on his skandha at the time of pravrajya. It seems that this was the custom which was followed by Mahāvīra by keeping Devadūsya on his skandha. We know from the Buddhist texts that nigganthas were having only one sāțaka. This should be that one Sätaka which was customarily kept by them at the time of pravrajya. They did not accept other
than this, that is why they are called by the Buddhistata fon This tradition was explained later by Acharyas in such a way that it became almost unbelievable on the one hand when they said that devadusya was given by Indra at the time of pravrajya. And on the other hand the Svetāmbara Achăryas found in it the proof of their सचल धर्म, though it is quite clear that it was not used by Lord Mahāvīra and that after 13 months he was without any cloth. So we can say that keeping a cloth at the time of pravrajyā has nothing to do with सचेल or अचेल धर्म but only it was a custom which was followed by Mahăvīra. Though at heart he was not in favour of keeping any cloth whatsoever, he simply kept it in order to follow the tradition. So we see that when it was removed from his person, he did not care to ask for other.
The secondary meaning of the word अनुधम्म is अनुकालधम्म according to Charni, which means that this was done so that the others coming later may follow him. This meaning of the word is also possible because whenever a tradition is followed by a great man it is to be taken as to be followed by others also in the time to come.
We know from other sources that Pārsva and his followers were using clothes and were not naked. So it is possible that though Mahāvīra of his own accord wanted to be a naked monk, he had to keep a cloth at the time of his pravrajya to follow the tradition of the Parśva's sangha. This seems to be the reason why the word 39 is used
1 This was possible because of the word Deva in Devadüşya. Really speaking it
means only उत्तराय, पाला in Hindi. Because of its high price it was called devadüsya. It was called az also, see Argavijjā p. 160.
