________________
422
The Unknown Pilgrims
·
is made of the five materials orginally permitted for the clothing of ascetics: wool, linen, hemp, cotton and the bark of trees.4 Four garments are designated for sädhvis, with even their measurements, but no exact details are given of their shape or precise use.5 We know that at a later period the number of permitted garments rose to eleven.6 The Acaranga-sūtra gives to the ascetics a formal injunction not to dye or bleach the garments which are given them; this would suggest that perhaps, at that epoch, white was not strictly enjoined.
ii) The rajoharana: The small broom of white wool
The sadhvis make this themselves by fixing long strands of very soft white wool in a special way round a stick of light-weight wood of which the end may be carved. In accordance with the differing customs of the communities, the handle is wrapped either in a fine white cloth or in a thicker material on which the aṣṭamangalas are embroidered in bright colours. Although nowadays the rajoharana is always made of sheepswool, other materials are in fact permitted and were probably used in days gone by. These are: camelshair, hemp and two sorts of grass, balvaja and muñja.9 These materials, like sheepswool, are soft and light and do not harbour living particles, these three characteristics being suitable for the rajoharaṇa, whose essential function is to permit the sadhvis to practise ahimsā as
4 Ibid. II, 29; SthS 446a.
5 Cf. AS II, 5, 1, 1 where silk is also metioned; SthS 246.
6
Cf. Deo, 1956, pp. 480-482 on Bṛhatkalpa-bhāṣya and Ogha-niryukti; Sen, 1975, pp. 165-167.
7 Cf. AS II, 5, 2, 5; cf. also P 534.
8 Cf. P 160 ff. the Murtipujaka sådhvis are the only ones to have the rajoharana with a carved handle wrapped in the aṣṭamangalas; sometimes the embroidered motifs are the 14 svapanas, the dreams of the Mother of one of the tirthankaras. They also have a little rajoharana for the night.
9 Cf. BrKS II, 30; SthS 446b.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
