Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

Author(s): Nand Kishor Prasad
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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PREFACE
During my stay at Nalanda for completing the M. A. course in Pali, I had an opportunity to meet a group of Jaina monks and nuns headed by Acharya Shri Tulasi and closely observe the duties and responsibilities of Jaina monks. I found striking similarities and differences between the monastic rules and regulations of the Jaina and Buddhist Orders, and imbibed fascination for a critical and comparative study of the Buddhist Vinaya and Jaina Acara. After taking the M. A. degree in Pali in 1959, I started studying the books of the Buddhist Vinaya and some of the important texts of Jaina Acara, namely, the Acarangasūtra, Daśavaikalikasutra, Uttaradhyayanasutra, Kalpasutra, etc. The problems of the origin of the Buddhist Vinaya and the monastic order and its literature on discipline engaged my mind. I also tried to find out the process of evolution of the ordination ceremony and the ceremonies of uposatha, vassāvāsa, pavāraṇā, and the like. I was gradually convinced that a study of the corresponding Jaina ceremonies will be positively helpful in determining the process of evolution of the Buddhist ceremonies. I also found the Jaina concept of monastic administration as containing valuable materials for a comparative study of the monastic administration of the Buddhists. The Buddhist transgressions and expiations found their parallel in the Jaina books of discipline, which have been noticed in the body of the thesis in their proper contexts.
Scholars are now agreed that there were numerous ascetic sects wandering from one place to another in the eastern and central part of Northern India with flourishing centres at Śrāvasti, Vaiśālī, Rājagṛha and similar other places The sects of the Nirgranthas and the Ajivikas were two very important communities of monks, well-established at the advent of the Buddha. The literature of the Ajivika sect is irretrievably lost, and it is difficult to have a concrete idea of the influence of the Ajivika monastic discipline on the evolution of the Buddhist Order. But fortunately the Jaina Ardhamāgadhi canon is still available as a fruitful source for tracing the origin of the rules of the Buddhist monasticism and the Patimokkha rules.
In the present book an attempt has been made to find the influence of Jainism on the evolution of the Buddhist monachism in respect of the topics mentioned above. I should frankly admit that it has not always been possible for me to find a Jaina precursor of the Buddhist concept. I have however tried to unveil similarities hidden under deceptive termi