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
tenets of monkhood or nunhood as the case may be. After the successful completion of the training period, their admission is confirmed. After the confirmation, the monk is called bhikkhu, niggantha, sāhu or thera, and the nun, bhikkhuni, nigganthi, sāhuņi, ajja or therī and are treated as regular members of the Order. Now they are entitled to participate in any affair of their respective Order as well as to aspire and endeavour even for the highest position in the Church hierarchy.1
The appearance and the outfit of a Jaina monk : The Jaina monks must have been readily recognisable as they practised either complete nuditya or clad in white garments from great antiquity, quite distinct from the reddish brown (geruka) dress of the Brahmapical ascetics and saffron-coloured (kasaya) robes of the Buddhist monks, two of the main sects of the Indian mendicants. Another distinctive feature of the Jaina monks was that they either got their hair and whiskers shaved or clipped leaving on their heads hair only four-finger long or as long as that of cows. Besides garments, other requisites which they always kept with them for the sake of self-control or out of a sense of shame were pot (paya), blanket (kambala), duster (payapuñchana, gocchaga or rayaharana) and a mouth-covering-cloth (muhupotti)?. The pot was
1. For all these references Vide Vav, 10.16-35; Nāyā, p. 163; Țhān, 159, p.
129a ; 320, p. 240a; etc. 2. In the Uttaradhyayanasūtra, Ajjhayana No. 23, there is a dialogue between
Gautama Indrabhūti, a disciple of Lord Mahāvira and Kesi, a follower of Lord Pārsva's sect, which refers to the monks to the Pārsva's Bect as hearing an inner and an upper garment (santarutlara) and the disciples of Lord Mahāvira as naked. Though the antiquity of the Ajjhayana may be questioned, there is no doubt that the followers of Pārsva did not practise nudity which was most probably introduced by Lord Mahāvira in imitation of the custom prevalent among the Ajivika sect. It is probable that among the followers of Lord Mahavira also there were monks who ueed clothes, and that explains the initiation of women in Jaina Church from the very beginning. In latter times, with the cleavage of the Jaina Church into Svetāmbara and Digambara, nudity came to be regarded as an essential feature of monk hood in the Digambara camp which consequently stopped admission of women to the Church.
Nayā, p. 30. 4. Kapp (SBE. Vol. XXI), p. 308. 5. Dasv, 6.20; Țhān 171, p. 138a adds disrespect from people as the third
reason. 6. Ayar (SBE. Vol. XXII), 1... 5,3 (p. 23); 1. 6. 2. 1 (p. 55); Bhag, 267, p.
291a; 289, p. 309b; Uttar, 26. 23. 7. Uttar, 26. 23; Bhag, 111, p. 139a; Nis, 4. 24; OghN, 288, p. 117a; 511, p. 175b;
628, p. 198b; 711-12, p. 214b.