Jinamanjari 1996 04 No 13

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 60

being the first person of this world age to achieve liberation. "49 Yet another example of a woman attaining the highest spiritual level is found in the story of the Jina Malli who, according to the Svetambara sect, chose the life of a renouncer as a prelude to kevalajnana. The myths concerning Malli will be addressed momentarily; rather, let us return to the tirthankara Parshvanatha and reconstruct what we can of the role of women in his order.
Jaina texts suggest that, at least as early as the ninth century B.C.E., women with a high degree of spiritual commitment and aptitude far outnumbered men with similar inclinations and abilities. According to the Kalpasutra, Parshvanatha divided his community into four parts: monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen. A woman named Pushpacula was placed at the head of the women's order. 50 Furthermore, the Kalpasutra records that the four-part sangha consisted of 16,000 monks, 38000 nuns, 164,000 laymen, and 327,000 laywomen.SI While the authenticity of the actual numbers may be questionable, what is immediately striking is the ratio of women to men. Renouncing women outnumbered the number of renouncing men by more than two to one. The sheer numbers of women alone indicate a religion in which the religiosity of women was respected and female renunciation was encouraged. Concerned with the welfare of all humankind, it was Parsvanatha who first offered an alternative to Vedic exclusives and, in doing so, afforded women the same opportunities as men and affirmed that women were capable of attaining the highest religious goal.52 The great teacher stressed the importance of four vows known as the Law of the Four Restraints (chaturyama-dharma) that most likely involved abstaining from four types of activities: injury, nontruthfulness, taking what is not given, and having possessions. the effectiveness of Parshvanatha's teaching is measured in the number of followers that he led to enlightenment -- some 2,000 ascetic women and 1,000 men.53
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