History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c10.19

v1.c10.19

The rage for Pravrajyā or giving up the world is a strong passion of the Indian mind from ancient times. It was due to the belief that this world was full of misery, that the soul was bound in the chain of transmigration from body to body according to its Karma and that the only escape from the misery of the present and future births lay in Pravrajyā or giving up the world and ceasing to act.† Under this belief the Rishis of the Upanishads gave up living in towns and went to forests. The same belief was placed in the forefront by Buddha, who added to it the institution of monasteries. While Brahmin Sanyāsis were enjoined to live singly, Buddha not only allowed men and women of all castes to become recluses, but for their secure maintenance and quiet, established Sanghārāmas or monasteries and directed lay devotees to feed them. Sanghārāmas or monasteries, therefore, sprang into existence and as Buddhism spread, multiplied. Thousands of Bhikshus of all castes lived a life of ease and quiet in these splendidly endowed institutions and they had fine halls and temples and stūpas built for them by pious kings and grandees. These monastic institutions of the Buddhists were undoubtedly the parents of the monastic institutions of Christianity and eventually succumbed to the same causes as led to the downfall of the latter. The downfall of the Buddhist monasteries had, however, not yet commenced. From Hiuen Tsang's records and also from the Harsha-Charita, India was at this time covered all over its extent by monasteries inhabited by thousands of monks and they were a set of well behaved and moral people, generally speaking, and had not yet come into disrepute like the Hiudu Pārāśaris. Jainism too had its recluses and its monasteries though they were yet a small community from Hiuen Tsang's account. Saivism too had its recluses or ascetics and these lived probably in temples of Śiva and burial grounds.