Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

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

Page 218

CHAPTER IV
MONASTIC ADMINISTRATION Now we come to the most significant aspect of an organisation viz., administration, which, no doubt, destines the success or otherwise of an institution-secular or religious. The Buddhist Order was a highly organised institution and was, beyond any shadow of doubt, managed and governed purely on democratic lines. Naturally a study of the Vinayapitaka reveals that most of the essential features of a democratic or republican organisation like moving of a motion (ñatti), reference to a select-committee (ubbahika) for arbitration, use of secret ballots (salakas), quorum and the election of the president are patent throughout in the constitution of the Buddhist Church. It is one of the numerous features of the Buddhist monachism which enabled an eminent scholar to opine that "The laws of polity by which the early Buddhist Sunghas were governed...... have passed through several stages before reaching that systematic completeness which characterize them in the Vinayapitaka").
The Jaina Order, like the Buddhist, too, was one of the wellorganised religious institutions that ever flourished in India. At the very outset it may be stated that the Jaina Order, in contrast with the Buddhist, adopted autocratic form of government from its very beginning. Lord Mahavira himself, for instance, is referred to have grouped his following into nine ganzs (groups) which were placed under the direct supervision of eleven ganadharas (group-leaders).
The foregoing remarks bear evidence to the fact that the Buddhist and the Jaina Orders should have very little in common so far as their administrative aspect is concerned. Nevertheless, we dare hunting up the points shared in by both the Orders and also pointing o features peculiar to one or the other system.
The monastic administration as it is to be examined here may conveniently be taken up under three categories which will follow one after another in course of this chapter. The three categories in question are :
(a) The Custodians of Monastic Discipline, (b) The Laws of Polity, & (c) The Buddhist Pratimokṣa and the Jaina Prayaścitta : A
Comparative Study.
1. EBM, p. 137.