Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

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

Page 81

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ŠTUDIES IN BUDDHIST AND JAINA MONACHISM
The act of inflicting punishment on a guily monk, the act of initiation (pabbajja), or the like was termed a sangha-kamma (ecclesiastical act or a transaction of the order), an act or a transaction to be disposed of by an assembly constituted lawfully.
A lawful and complete assembly comprised of all monks residing in the district (sima) of an avasa (residence) leaving the samaneras, monks belonging to another ārāsa and monks undergoing some sort of punishment! Finally the minimum number of monks required for the transaction of an ecclesiastical act was fixed, the minimum being four and the maximum twenty and above." A inotion (ñatti), a proclamation (anussa vana) and a resolution (dharana) followed one after another in course of the disposal of an ecclesiastical act lawfully.
The various sorts of ecclesiastical acts (sangha-kammas) often referred to in the Vinayapitaka may be grouped as below : (a) Nondisciplinary and non-disputatious sangha-kammas (b) Disciplinary sangha-kammas, i. e. offences and punishments, and (c) Ecclesiastical disputes (adhikarana).
So far as the transaction of the ecclesiastical acts comprising the first group is concerned, the act of ordination of a candidate stated in brief on pages 40-11 and discussed in detail in the section *Pabbajjā and Upasampada' belonging to the first chapter, may be cited as an example in point.
The second category, i. e., the disciplinary sangha kammas comprised of appropriate punishments and penalties accruing from offences incurred by a monk or a nun. Such offences classified in eight groups, namely, (i) pārājika (expulsion), (ii) sanghădisesa (suspension),
iii) nisaggiya (forfeiturel, (iv) pacittiya (expiation), (v) aniyatā (sus. pension or expiation), (vi) pitidesaniyā (confession), (vii) sekhiya (rules of training and tutelage) and (viii) adhikaranasamatha , ways of settling disputes) were 227 for monks and 311 for nuns, enumerated in a separate text known as the Patimokkha. In fact the number of the offences and their punishments should be less than those reffered to.
The different measures carried out against a transgressor for the imposition of the punishments accruing from his offences has been given in great detail in the Cullavagga. So also the measures taken for the ecclesiastical acts falling under the third group, the settlement of disputes. As these will find a detailed discussion in the section entiled 'the laws of polity' comprising the fourth chapter, we may postpone their further elaboration here.
1. MV, 10. 1. 5, pp. 371-72. 2. Ibid, 9. 4. 9-13, pp. 334f; C! 1. 1. 5, p. 7-9. 3. Vide Infra the last section of the fourth chapter.