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( 38 ): Ideal, such youths being known as the #1669 art. Thus in the normal Brahmanical system quite : about : half of society would be wandering about as mendicants. and ascetics in pursuit of Truth under the guidance of chosen teachers. This floating mass of houseless. population was organised into different orders of sects in accordance with the different systems of doctrines and discipline they followed. The Buddhist text Udananı bears testimony to the fact that the characteristic feature of the religious life of India during this period was a multiplicity of ascetic groups,"sectaries of Sramanas and Brahnamas, all parivrajakas, followers of different ditthis (viewpoints), ia (system), 91fa (beliefs), : ofą (aims), and 21974 (organisations)"; the Jain' texts also mention numerous sects, and schools, with their own beliefs and practices, existing in the country at the time. In his introduction to the Acharanga, Jacobi has elaborately compared the rules and religious . practices of Brahmanic and Sramanic ascetics, and stated his conclusion that certain rules were commonly observed by most of the ascetic orders, for instance, (1) the injunction that the Bhikshu must station himself in a fixed retreat during the rains, (2) the injunction that the Bhikshu must not store up articles of consumption, nor kill life, and (3) various rules regarding beggings etc. Tapas (or austerities), in some form or other, it appears, was common to particularly all orders. But. Mahavira was now giving a new meaning to the term, which conflicted with all its prevailing notions and which raised the practice of 29€ to a spiritual height, unattained and not even intended to be attained, by. any: of the existing parivrajaka orders.
: Mahavira's idea of tapas was that of fat or practice: of self restraint with regard to the body, speech and: mind ; in his view, austerities had to be inward as well as outward, and fasting, absolute chastity and unmitigated meditation were its several forms. The practice: of austerities or penances was to be resorted to as a. means of wearing out and ultimately destroying the
