Note On Class Of Ascetics Called Unmajjaka

Author(s): A Wezler
Publisher: A Wezler

Page 11

The class of ascetics called unmajjaka
227
In the editions of the Kumāras, accessible to me the precise point in the Manusmặti is not indicated. By a circuitious route I was finally led to Manusmrti 6.23cd which, however, reads:
(grisme pancatapās tu syād varsāsv abhrāvakāśikah) ārdravāsās tu hemante kramaso vardhayams tapaḥ //.
And the reading ārdravāsās is attested also by those commentators who give a full explanation of the verse, viz. Medhātithi, Govindarāja and Kullūka", as also in the parallel passages of other Dharmaśāstra texts. The reading (the only one?) known to Mallinātha - in view of the predicate it has, of course, to be interpreted as apsuvāsas. 66
- is not noted by Jolly67 and G. JhaS. Now it cannot by any means be disputed that wearing wet clothes in winter - most probably because of not changing after taking a bath - has in fact been regarded in ancient India as one of the many forms of tapas, and of asceticism practised for its own sake and not only as a means of atonement". But in view of the special clothes prescribed for vānaprasthas common to which is their non-textile character, one wonders if the reading ärdraväsäs of Manu 6.23 is really the original one. In this connection it should also be noted that the number of passages
63. M.R. Käle repeating this statement of Mallinātha's in his own commentary on Bana's Kādambari [Pürvabhāga Complete) ..., repr. Delhi (etc.) 1968, p. 45 (of the text) is, of course, of no help. The same holds good of the Manusmrtipadyānukrama, attached to the NSP-ed. (with Kullüka's commentary), as it contains only the first pädas; Manasukbarāy Mor's edition (with Medhätithi's Bhäşya, in two parts, Calcutta 1967 and 1971) though includes an alphabetically arranged list of all the pädas, but apsu vāsas ... does not appear in it. Thus I finally consulted the Larger Petrograd Dictionary s.v. hemanta.
64. See Manu-Smrti with nine commentaries ..., ed. by J. H. Dave, Vol. III, Bombay 1978, p. 193f. 65. Viz. Vişnu 95.1-4, Yājā. 3.52 and Sankha (ed. P.V. Kane, ABORI VII (1926) and VIII (1926)), no. 159). Note however that the passage quoted by Apararka on Yājn. 3.52 (cf. Kane no. 369) clearly refers to udavāsa, too, for the expression jalaśayana can hardly be interpreted in any other way.
66. Cf. e.g. apsuyoni.
67. Mānava Dharma-Šāstra. The Code of Manu ..., London 1887.
68. Manu-Smriti. Notes, by G. Jha, Pt. 1: Textual, Calcutta 1924.
69. Note that ardrapafavāsas is mentioned at Rām. 3.6.5 as a separate group of ascetics (Bhagat, 0.c., I.c. [note 18]) and cf. also M. Shee, O.c. (note 34], p. 251 note 46.
70. See e.g. GautDhS 3.1.15 (ardravastratā enumerated together with other forms of tapas in a definition of the latter term as used in sūtra 11); "coils of matted hair soaked with water" are also mentioned by Ašvaghoşa, Buddhacarita VII 17. See also above n. 29.
71. Bāna, however, refers in his Kādambari (p. 49 1. 4; for the edition used see note 80) to tāpasas who wash their valkalas in lake Pampā and thereby colour its water. But there is no indication whatsoever that they are conceived of as putting on their wet clothes nor is there any connection between them and the udaväsitāpasas (on which see below p. 15).