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the same status as the vow of ahimsa. Jacobi is of the opinion that “the augmentation in the 'text presup-.. poses a decay of the morals of the monastic order to have occurred between Pārsva and Mahavira.” It was · possibly a reflection in the domain of social ethics of the newly growing ideas of sanctity of property which marked the rise of economic capitalism in Indian society: Secondly, although it is clear that Parsva's. sangha as well as Mahavira's comprehended the monk and the nun, and the layman and the laymwoman, the type of distinction between an ordinary layman ( 194 ) and a layman who took a special type of it and undertook to observe the twelve lay vows( श्रमणोपासक), which undoubtedly formed a peculiar feature of Mahavira's sangha, did not seem to characterise Parsva's sangha at all. The difference between a $7199 and . a u1999 in Mahaviras' sangha consisted presumably in this, that a Sravaka took no definite vows but merely expressed sympathy and his faith as a Jain, while à Sramanopasaka took definite vows : Mahavira drew - a distinction between the five great FOWS (HETAT) · which laid down the practice of right conduct for the ascetic, and the five lesser vows (na) which indicated the rules of discipline for the layman and were reinforced by seven more lay vows under which the layman imposed on himself voluntary limitations regarding the areas of his desires, his travel, the things of his daily use, the performance of meditation every day and every month, and the giving of alms to the ascetic. There is an occasional mention of the twelve vows of the fravaka in Parśva's sangha also, but that appears to be no more than a conventional way of writing, for it is obvious that there could not be twelve there could be at best only eleven-Vows of Parsva's sravakas. What is significant is that Parsya's system is invaribly spoken of as atayfy in the Buddhist and the Jain texts, and such invariable use of the term does not warrant the type of distinction which Mahavira . felt impelled to draw between the great and the lesser VOWS.
