Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

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

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STUDIES IN BUDDHIST AND JAINA MONACHISM of using it properly and equally with others. So also, it was unlawful to divert any gain of the Order how much trifle it might have been, if it had already been given to the Sangha. As such a gift of robes made to one party of a divided assembly actually belonged to the whole assembly, if given with reference to the whole assembly (sanghassa dem a ti), except that the donor intended to give to one party only. Robes given to the Sangha before its division too were to be distributed equally among all the members of the Sangha.?
However, we come across in the Acāra ngasūtra a regulation to the same effect which goes even to the extent of advising a monk to be impartial in the distribution of the requisites like food, robes, etc., and neither to take undue share nor to select the nice things for himself. Nevertheless, the Buddhists seem to have surpassed the Jainas. The rule, that any offer to be made to an individual member of the Sangha was to be offered to the Saigha with special reference to that person, 4 raised the Church to the status of supreme authority.
Even a senior member (thera) of the Buddhist Order had got no right over a gift of robes offered to the monks by a donor, even if it was the outcome of his imposing personality. It exclusively belonged to the monks to whom it had been offered, until the kathina was performed. The Jaina Church, on the other hand, followed a different sequence of the distribution of robes. According to this proce. dure, the clothes were distributed according to the status of the monk.6 At another place, in the same record, the sequence adopted in the distribution of clothes is given as below. The gurū was allotted the best and the durable clothes for his use and the rest were distributed to the novice, ill, needy (parimitopadhi), well-read, preacher of text, old monks jätithera), monks practising penance, inonks not knowing the local dialect, monks endowed with special qualities, and then to the remaining monks in order of their seniority respectively. Sometimes, this sequence too was replaced by another one. According to this, it was to be given to the acārya first, then to the ill, then to the needy, then to the respected ones, then to the pravartini, then to the sthavira, then to the gaṇāvacchedin, then to the well-read, and then in the sequence
1. PM, 4. 30. 2. MV, 8. 28. 51, p. 323. 3. Ayar (SBE. Vol. XXII), 2. 1. 5.5 (pp. 101-102). 4. MV, 6. 7. 18, pp. 231f. 5. Ibid. 8. 20. 38, pp. 311-315, 6. Brhk, 3. 19-20.