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RULES FOR YATIS.
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THE SAMÁCHÁRIS.
1st Samáchári. At that time and season the adorable ascetic Mahávíra commanded that, reckoning from the full moon of Ashadh a month and twenty days, a period of rest and fasting should be observed yearly in the four months of the rainy season*. When the reason of this was asked, he replied that it was intended, first to lead the householder to whiten and thatch his house, smear and clean the walls inside, repair his fence, level and clean his floors, perfume his house, clear the pipes and gutters, that the house might be fitted for the true enjoyments of life; and next that such a
* This divides the rainy season into two periods, one of fifty, and one of seventy days; the Svetámbara Jains fast, during the formor, and the Digambara during the latter of these periods, as the text is considered ambiguous. The term for this fast is Paryushana. Its nature will immediately appear, permitting of a fast, varying from that in which but one meal daily is taken, to that in which abstinence of two, three, or more days is volunteered.
