Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

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

Page 243

STUDIES IN BUDDHIST AND JAINA MONACHISM
(vii) Tiṇavattharaka1 :-This form is applied in a case which when discussed is feared to give undesirable consequences. Therefore, it is deemed good to drop the issue as it is necessary to cover the filth by grass in order to get rid of its bad smell. Other requisite conditions for the trial are as usual.
222
These were the laws of polity which were carried out in the early Buddhist Sangha. Now we come to the Jaina.
(B) Jaina
The Jaina Church on account of its being an autocratic form of organisation depended entirely on the Sasta, i.e., the Master, which was, of course, a custom in the 6th century B. C. It was therefore befitting that it equipped the officer or rather the officers of the Church with unlimited power and authority so that they could deal with the guilty persons properly, could settle the cases of disputes and quarrels successfully, and so on and so forth. A few words about the same will not be out of place here.
The offences and transgressions to be committed by a Jaina monk were innumerable and of varied nature. So also the punishments and expiations prescribed for the same. The judicial proceedings carried out against a transgressor was called 'Vavahara'. It was based either on the canon (agama), or tradition (sue), or law (ana), or charge (dharaṇā), or custom (jie). The punishments and expiations together called Prayaścittas to be inflicted on a guilty monk which were guided by this fivefold principles were ten, the lightest being Aloyana and the gravest Parañciya:
1. Aloyaņā
2.
Padikkamana
3. Tadubhaya
4. Vivega
5.
6. Tava
7. Cheya
8. Mula
Viūsagga
Apavatthappa
9.
10. Parañciya
-Condemnation, - Confession,
-Confession and condemnation,
-Discrimination,
-Corpoal punishments,
-Penance,
-Curtailment of seniority,
-Re consecration,
-Suspension,
-Expulsion.
1. CV, 4.7 28-30, pp. 167-70; 4.9.55-60, pp. 188-92; EMB, pp. 309-10. 2. Vav, 10.2.
3. Than, 489, p. 355b; 733, p. 484a; Bhag, p. 920ff; Aup. 78.