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514
The Unknown Pilgrims
This does not belong to the group made up of the four ancient Cheda-sutras. It is composed by Jinabhadra Gani.152 Brief and systematic, it deals solely with the ten prayaścittas. Not only is it considered with the same respect as a Cheda-sūtra, but it also constitutes a sure and useful guide which contemporary ācāryas frequently consult.
b) The prayaścittas: The ten types of expiation
The ten prayaścittas listed in the Jiiakalpa-sūtra had been formulated at a much earlier period. The Sthānāṁga-sūtra enumerates, successively, three, then six, then eight and finally ten prayaścittas.153 These ten prayaścittas are:
ǎlocană, confession; pratikramaṇa, repentance; ubhaya, confession and repentance; viveka, discernment; vyutsarga, renunciation of ownership of the body; tapas, austerities; cheda, partial removal of seniority; mula, loss of seniority of rank; anavasthāpya, temporary expulsion; pārāñcika, expulsion.154 The first seven have already been mentioned in connection with inner tapas. 155 Parihara, the temporary isolation of the guilty party, which has an important place in the ancient Cheda-sūtras, is not mentioned in the Jitakalpa. As all these texts were composed in differing epochs, a certain overlapping has come about and sometimes a certain confusion in regard to the nature of each of the prayaścittas, their practical application and their number. Nevertheless, one can extract from the whole certain essential features of the ascetic life.
152 The author of the Visesävasyaka-bhäṣya and the Dhyanaśataka (P 374 ff), probably of the VIth c.
153 Cf. SthS 196; 489; 605; 733e.
154 Cf.Jitakalpa 4.
155 Cf. P 369 ff.; TS IX, 22 mentions 9 prayaścittas and, in the place of müla and anavasthäpya, gives parihāra and upasthāpana; cf. US XXX, 31.
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