Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

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

Page 144

NISSAYAS
123
community dinner), and the Jainas bhatteşanā or goyari. The reason alluded to the promulgation of these vattas by the first is said to have been the indecent behaviour of Chavaggiya monks. They are often mentioned to have misbehaved with the monks both senior as well as junior and to have gone to th: village clad improperly. The Jaina Order, on the other hand, seems to have framed the rules before any instance of the kind came to the force. Any further remark in point before giving a detailed account of the rules concerned will be incorrect and unjustified.
After having been informed about the meal-time, the Buddhist monks clad properly and provided with the begging-bowl, proceeded to the village slowly and carefully with downcast eyes. They avoided at all cost pushing their way on in front of the seniors, or proceeding to the village with disordered robes, or with long laughter or with swaying limbs, or putting hands on the hips, or with covered head, or with unusual gait, or fickle-minded looking to and fro. So also, they tried not to encroach on the seniors or to debar a junior from a seat or to spread their upper-robes as a mat when taking seat in the house of the donor.?
In course of begging, nobody was allowed to force one's way into a house where a meal was going on or to take a seat there in order to enjoy the meal. Anybody wishing to go inside a house for alms should do so after a due examination of the way to go in and to come out. If entered inside, one should stay there at a considerable distance from the householder for a considerable period of time If there was any hope of getting alms, then one should wait there and should receive it with downcast eyes."
Likewise the Jaina monks set out for begging alms outfitted with all their requisites. As a rule, nobody was allowed to go on begging when there was heavy rain, thick and strong mist, high and dusty wind, or a large number of insects flying in the sky. The Jinakalpika monks, unlike the Sthavirakalpikas who collected alms even in light rain, observed it strictly as they refrained from begging even if there was a fine spray of rain. Normally the monks collected alms in
1. CV, 8.5. 8, p. 317. 2. Ibid, 8. 5. 9, pp. 317-18; 8. 6. 11, p. 320; PM, 7. 1-26. 3. Ibid, 8. 6.11, pp. 320-21. 4. Ayār (SBE. Vol. XXII), 2. 1. 3. 6 (p. 96). 5. Ibid, 2. 1. 3. 9 (pp. 95-97); Daso, 5-1. 8. 6. Kapp (SBE. Vol. XXII), p. 301,