History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c46.84

v3.c46.84

The most serious inroad, however, on the ideal of sannyāsa was made when people professing to be ascetics were allowed to have wives or concubines. The Vāyupurāṇa (quoted in the Yati-dharmasaṅgraha p. 108) invokes dire consequences on him who after becoming a sannyāsin has sexual intercourse, viz. he becomes a worm in ordure for 60,000 years, passes through the lives of a rat, a vulture, a dog, a donkey, a pig, a tree without flowers and fruit, a goblin and then he is born as a cāṇḍāla. The Rājataraṅgiṇī (III. 12) records²¹⁷⁸ that when the queen of Meghavāhana built a monastery she established in a portion of it ascetics who followed the rules of conduct laid down for their order and in the other portion ascetics, who were condemnable because of their acting like householders, together with their wives, sons, cattle and wealth. In the Presidency of Bombay several cases have come before the courts about the rights of succession to Gharbhari Gosavis²¹⁷⁹ (i.e. ascetics who have a house and family). Vide *Gosain Rambharti v. Mahant Surajbharti*, 5 Bom. 682 (where it was held that a Gosavi who succeeded as a disciple to a mohunt did not forfeit his rights by subsequent marriage), *Balgir v. Dhondgir*, 5 Bom. L. R. 114, *Gitabai v. Shivbakas*, 5 Bom. L. R. 318, *Hirabharthi v. Bai Javer*, 30 Bom. L. R. 1555.