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Āryikās: The Digambara Sādhvis
631
that his inner disposition is such as to favour the destruction of karmic matter and conduce towards the purification of the atman.? It cannot be repeated too often that aparigraha is first and foremost an inner attitude and that, once pledged to the path of renunciation, the ascetic must maintain a persistent effort towards constant purification, by listening, above all, to the words of the guru, by being humble and obedient and by studying the Sūtras.4
The äryikās arc anagări, nirgranthi, śramaņi, but in regard, to the external features of this way of life, more radical in approach than the Svetāmbara sådhvis. The āryikās are permitted a bare minimum for the maintenance of life. Furthermore, the two tradition's have developed separately during the course of the centuries and, even if the doctrine is common to both despite certain divergences (of which the most important, concerns, precisely, the Liberation of womankind) and the duties are identical and the rite and means employed to fulfil these duties basically alike, nevertheless the āryikās, on account of
ossessing different-though very similar in their essential content - Scriptures, constitute within the Jaina sangha a homogeneous and distinct group. This group is cxceedingly small, due to a number of factors some of which are spiritual and some historical, a minority group of which scant mention is made and of whose existence many people are unaware. The āryikās, however, form a well-organised community which faithfully follows the tradition and merits our full attention.
In the light of the basic elements of asceticism according to Jaina doctrine and of all that we already know about the sādhvis, we are now going to consider the way of life of the āryikās in regard to its special features and their implementation in daily living. Here there is no question of making some sort of classification of differences in the vidhis or rituals observed by the aryikās and the sădhvis, but simply of recognising what shape or form the most important vidhis assume for
3 Part II contains a fair number of Digambara texts, particularly those of Acārya Kundakunda, so there is no need to insert reference again here.
4 uvayaraṇam jinamagge liṁgam jahajādarūvamidi bhanida
guruvayaņam pi ya viņao suttajhayanam ca nidditthaṁ PSa III, 25; PSa III expatiates at length and in detail on the nature of this effort.
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