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Cosmic and Purificatory Rite
699
3. Outline of part IV
With a view both to providing a direct contact with the main sūtras and also to following the successive stages of the rite, this part is divided into two sections:
The main sutras
These are the pillars which uphold each of the āvaśyakas. Certain āvaśyakas such as the caturviņśatistava and the vandana contain only one sūtra, while pratikramaņa is made up of numerous sūtras. Among the sutras recited during pratikramana, the mangala-sūtras, short stanzas of praise, the all-embracing sūtra of repentance, the sutra which concerns movement from one place to another and the final sūtra which requests pardon from all beings, express perfectly both the meaning of pratikramana and its effects. The other sūtras simply make more explicit the comprehensive, all-embracing sutra.
The sādhvis, whichever their sampradāya or gaccha, all recite these more important sūtras, which belong to the Avašyaka- sūtra and form the essential portion of that which, in our own day, continues a very ancient tradition. Any differences between the communities as regards the way they observe the rite have to do with the inner ordering of its parts and the number, greater or less, of sūtras and secondary hymns recited, certain ones of which do not belong to the Avaśyaka-sūtra.
Successive stages of the site
We give the order followed by the Sthầnakavāsi sādhvis.11 The Terăpanthi sādhvis follow a very similar one. It is, therefore, except
11 I have chosen for practical reasons the ritual order observed among the Sthănakavāsis. On the one hand, the śramana-sútra of Muni Amaracandra and the samāyika-sūtra of Jñana Muni, both of them Sthānakavāsis, are valuable guides and, on the other, in the course of my own numerous vihāras, I have had the opportunity of being present at the performance of the rite by the Sthānakavāsis more frequently than by the Mūrtipujakas. In addition, Mahāsati Tarulată who spent two caturmäsyas at Madrās where I was able to
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