Studies in Buddhist and Jaina Monachism

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

Page 86

THE BACKGROUND OF THE BUDDHIST VINAYA to the foot of a tree as his shelter. According to the last nissaya, the patimuttabhesajja, a monk should use only urine as his medicine,
A number of monks, who wanted to lead particularly a strict monastic life adhered to these laws. Others, on the other hand, revolted against them. The Mahāvagga tells of a newly admitted monk, previously a Brahmin, who when asked by the monks to beg, not only refused to obey them but also warned them to desert the fold if not supplied with provisions 'nāhan, a vuso. etam karana pabbajito pindāya carissāmi ti, sace me dassatha bhuñjissāmi, no ce me dassalha vibbhamissami ti"?. Then again the same text speaks of a youth who came to the monks and requested them for admission. The monks told him the four resources before his admission, whereupon he expressed his inability to receive pabbajiä as the requisites were disagreeable to him : “sace me, bhante, pabbajite nissaye a cikkheyyatha, abhirameyyāmaham. na dănaham, bhante, pabbajissāmi; jeguccha me nissaya patiküla ti”3,
Obviously the main purpose of the regulations was extreme poverty. It allowed no private property at all. The possession of money was strictly forbidden right from the very inception of the Church, which continued as a point of controversy for a pretty long time. Besides, they were unwholesome and revolting too. For example, a number of rules like picking up rags from cemeteries and several other rules regarding other resources are named 'unsanitary rules' by an eminent orientalist, Mr. E. A Reed.
These practices of the early Buddhists appear to have a close resemblance with that of the Jaina monks who not only persisted in houselessness strictly, but also starved their bodies in want of proper food and clothing. Later on though the severity of the rules seems to have been relaxed as the Vinayapitaka speaks of accepting donations, attending invitations and using even storeyed building as dwelling places by the monks, yet a monk was strictly advised to be satisfied only with "sufficient robes to cherish his body, with sufficient food to keep his stomach going" so that whithersoever he may go forth these things he takes with him as he goes -just as a bird with
1. MV, 1.2. 73, p. 55. 2. Op. cit 1. 22. 73, p. 55. 3. MV, 1, 23. 74, p. 74. 4. The possession of jätaruparojata was one of the ten contentions which
were gettled in the second Buddhist Council. Vide CV, 12. 2. 13, p. 423. 5. Primitive Buddhism, pp. 138-42. 6. MV, 1. 22. 73 (p. 55); 1. 69. 128 (p. 100); CV, 6. 12.32 (p. 272).