Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

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

Page 230

THE CUSTODIANS OF MONASTIC DISCIPLINE
209
held a position in between the Ayariya and the Uvajjhaya.1 Dr. Deo has discussed this issue in detail. He remarks that "The commentaries' understand by this mostly two persons and in few cases where the word is used in plural, perhaps the view is correet". But the Vyavaharasutra, he further points out, "treats him as a single person, superior to the Uvajjhaya in point of standing in monkhood (pariyāya), as well as in study, as he was expected to have studied the three Chedasutras --Dasā (Daśāśrutaskandha), Kappa (Brhatkalpa), and Vavahāra (Vyavahārasūtra)'.5 So he holds, "that he acted as an Ayariya when the latter was absent, and as an Uvajjhaya when the real Uvajjhaya was busy with something else. Thus he seems to have served as a link between the Ayariya and the Uvijjhāya”.“
Thus the qualifications required for this post were at least five years' experience as a monk and the knowledge of the Daśāśrutaskandha, the Brhatkalpa and the Vyavahara. In case such a person was not available, then even a person whose pariyaya had been cut short due to some offence committed by him was installed in the office, if he was deemed otherwise fit for the post. If he was not remembering the aforesaid texts, then he had to learn at least the Дyarapakappa.10
The privileges to be enjoyed by this officer were similar to those of the Ayariya." It was due to this exalted position of the Ayariyauvajjhāya that the commission of any offence against celibacy or giving up the robes (avadhavai) while in the office made him unfit for holding any office throughout his life. In case he committed these offences after leaving his office, then he forfeited his claim for three years only.12
Thus it is clear that the qualifications for the post of Ayariyauvajjhaya were higher than that for the Uvajjhaya and lower than that for the Ayariya. It seems therefore that the Ayariyauvajjhāya was an officer superior to the Urajjhaya and inferior to the Ayariya. This
1. Schubring, Doctrines of the Jainas, p. 255.
2. Vav, 4.11f.
3. Cf. Than, p. 329b; Bhag, p. 232b.
4. Var, 1.31.
5. Ibid, 3.5.
6. HJM, pp. 219-20.
7. Vav, 3.5.
8. Ibid, 3.25.
9. Ibid, 3.9.
10. Ibid, 3.10.
11. Vide Supra, p. 208.
12. Vav, 3.16-17; 3.21 22.
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