Sramana Tradation

Author(s): G C Pandey
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 60

Moral and Social Outlook of Sramaņism
racolaka ). They were permitted to accept not only invitation from the laity but also a wide variety of alms. They could use medicines also. Beginning with the meagre four Nissayas, Buddhist monasteries deve. loped into elaborate set ups which had considerable property and several officials.
As for monastic architecture the Buddhist monks were ordinarily allowed to dwell in five types of dewllings - Vihāra, Addhayaga, Pāsāda, Hammiya and Guhá. As is well known, rock-cut Vihāras were used in later times by Buddhists as well as the Jainas and the Ājivakas and they provided occasions for decorative sculpture and painting The names of Ajantā and Nalanda are sufficient to bring to one's mind the amazing contribution of monasteries in the sphere of education, art and culture. The richness and glory of monastic life in classical times can be easily gleaned from the glowing accounts of Chinese travellers, especially I-tsing. 1
Although śramaņism is essentially asceticism which developed into monasticism, it had to provide a lesser but necessary ideal to its lay followers. The Jainas logically distinguished the Mahāvratas from the Anuvratas. The householder is required to follow the same five ideals of non-violence, truth, non-stealing, chastity and non-possessiveness but within limitations necessary for leading the life of a householder. Thus chastity comes to mean for them fidelity in marriage and poverty means not avoiding wealth and property but cultivating detachment, contentment and liberality. What is more, the householder must avoid the use of foul means in the course of his professional and business life. Sramanism for the laity means an ideal of spiritually inclined ethical humanism. It does not condemn the pursuits of secular life but holds them to be subordinate to the cultivation of a moral and spiritual attitude which would combine simple living with high thinking and inward training of the will with purity of feeling.
In the Uvāsagadasão, which may be taken as an example of the Jaina attitude towards laity, we are told that the merchant Upāsaka 61. Takakusu (tr.) 1-tasing : The Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the
Malaya Archipalago (Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1966), especially Ch. XXXIV.