Manuscript Illustrations Of Uttaradhyayana Sutra

Author(s): W Norman Brown
Publisher: American Oriental Society

Page 52

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15. THE TRUE MONK A short chapter of 16 verses describes the characteristics of the true monk: he is a solitary mendicant, chaste, learned, enduring everything, bearing discomfort, heat, cold, insect bites, not expecting respectful treatment, practising austerity, not resorting to omens and divination or medicine, not fawning upon the wealthy and prominent, taking only what is given him, unmoved by any emotion, not even by that of compassion, not despising loathsome food, unawed by any sound, whether natural or supernatural, possessing all the religious virtues, living solitary and sinless.
The illustration in DV (fig. 53) shows Mahāvira seated preaching, while before him stands a monk listening respectfully. In JM (fig. 51) three monks listen to Mahāvira, two squatting and one standing. For HV I have no illustration. In JP (fig. 52) there are three panels. In the topmost a monk stands absorbed in meditation; on one side is a layman striking at him with an axe, and on the other side is another layman making a hostile gesture and evidently reviling him. In the middle panel is again a monk concentrated in meditation, but this time there is a layman at each side honoring him. But the monk is no more aware of the adoration than he was of the attack above. In the bottom panel is a monk receiving alms from a layman. Many pots of food and drink are at hand behind the layman, but the monk holds out only his small begging bowl, and is content with the little it can contain.