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Āryikās: The Digambara Sādhvis
661
2. From about noon until just before sunset: sâmåyika (devavandana)-svādhyāya-adhyayana-pravacana-pratikramaņa.
3. From after sunset until well into the night: sāmāyika-dhyānasvādhyāya.64
As the rite of āhāra does not oblige them to go from house to house and as the number of äryikās competent to give pravacanas is small, their contacts with the exterior are thereby limited, although the śrāvakas and sravikas come frequently to salute them and consult them. Very exceptionally and when it is a question of giving spiritual help to a member of the local samgha, the āryikās may, though always two or more together and during daylight, pay a visit to a family outside the time of āhāra.65
The avaśyakas, svādhyāya, the ritual for åhåra and the prayascittas, though based on the Jaina doctrine common to all the sampradāyas, exhibit as practised by the āryikās some special features which possess an internal harmony and impart to their life its own style and character. Avoiding repetition of the basic ideas which are the underlying inspiration of each of the vidhis, let us endeavour to discem these characteristics.
a) Āvašyaka-vidhi: The rite of duties
According to the prescribed numberical order pratyākhyāna comes before kāyotsarga. Among the āryikās a special feature of their vidhis is the recitation of the appropriate bhaktis in each of them, especially during sämāyika or devavandana. In addition to this recitation of bhaktis, the vidhis, taken as a whole, are decidedly elaborate. 66
64 All these words are already familiar (P 476 ff.); cf. Jñānamati, 1976, pp. 27-29.
65 Ibid., p. 25.
66 This subsection draws upon Sāmāyika (pp. 7-24) edited by Mātāji and containing the rite of sāmāyika as practised by the aryikas; Jñanamati, 1976, pp. 39-47. I regularly took part in these rites during my stays in Hastināpura in 1976 and 1977 with the help of Dharma-dhyāna-dipaka.
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