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Pravrajyā: The Itinerant Life
553
Here a question arises. Since the sādhvis are natives of different areas and travel from North to South and from East to West, in what language do they address their audience? The Svetāmbaras are established chiefly in Gujarāta, Rājasthāna, Madhya Pradeśa and Panjāba, and they are to be found in other regions also, though coming originally from these afore-mentioned States. All speak their own mother tongue and Hindi. Many of the sādhvis know Hindi and, except in Gujarāta, they generally address their hearers in Hindi. Certain ones of them, if they stay long enough in the same area, study its language and, if it seems more appropriate for those present, they give their pravacanas in the local language.
b) Dharma-granthas: Religious works
The pravacana may be by far the most common way of passing on the teaching, but the written word is also used and is beginning to be frequently used in certain gacchas. Moreover, writing, for those sādhvis who possess literary or poetic gifts, is a continuation of svādhyāya. They pass on to others their knowledge, their own insights and reflections, prompted by an eager desire to enlighten, guide and encourage those men and women who will read their writings. These works are of four different types:
Dharma-granthas: Doctrinal works
These are books and writings on the subject of spirituality and doctrine, the two being inseparable. These wirtings are as yet few in number and up to this present time the Tapāgaccha sādhvis, just as in regard to publicly delivered pravacanas, have received little encouragement to write. By way of contrast, the other sādhvis do so gladly, so far as their own possibilities permit. The writing of a
Vicakşaņa, gave during her course of regular pravacanas a systematic exposition of the doctrine, subsequently published in book form: Śri jaina dharma praveśikā, a dharma-grantha of 168 pp. of which 4,400 copies were printed; cf. Appendix I.
In certain sampradāyas the sādhvi who is giving the pravacana is seated on a long low table with the other sādhvis on either side. In others, only the sadhvi who is speaking sits on the low table. The pravacanas are not necessarly given by the guruņi.
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