The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources c10.7

c10.7

§137. The adherents of Mahāvīra's teaching constitute the community (*saṃgha*). It comprises both monks and nuns as well as both male and female representatives of laymanship, and hence at is called fourfold (Viy. 792 b; Ṭhāṇ. 281b).¹ The name for the monk is, partly, rather epithetic in speaking, for instance, of *cāi*, *jai*, *niyaṇtha*,² *māhaṇa*, *samaṇa*.³ The Viy. mostly speaks of *aṇagāra* and *samaṇa niggantha*. In the texts purely concerned with disciplinary questions the monk is called *niggantha*, *bhikkhu*, *samaṇa niggantha*, later *sāhu*. He is addressed by the words of *āusanto samaṇa* and *samaṇ’āuso*. Fellow-believers go by the names of *sāhammiya* and *sāhammiṇī*. The nun is called *nigganthī*, *bhikkhuṇī-*, and *sāhuṇī*.¹ There are various reasons for devoting oneself to monkdom, i.e. the *pavvajjā*, which actually mean the departure from homely life into the state of homelessness (*agārāo aṇagāriyaṃ*). The motives for doing so differ widely. They may be found either in extrinsic reasons or in some inner urge just as they may be either of a more noble or a more vulgar character, comp. *Ṭhāṇ.* 128b, 276a, 473a—passages which, partly, give the impression of holding up a mirror to the monks. It is certainly true that in many cases the former life of a person made itself felt also later, since we are told of nuns who are *aṭṭha-jāyā*, i.e. who are the object of some claim or other. Against inopportune elements, however, the community guards itself by means of strict rules. There is no entry (K. 4, 4) for sickly persons (*vāiya*) or such with sexual defects (*paṇḍaga*, *kīva*). The prohibition is extended (a. o: *Sthān.* 165a) to persons being either too young or too old, being either of a vicious nature or unqualified, being previously convicted, suffering from bodily infirmity or else not being master of themselves, e.g. on account of being involved in debts (*aṇ’-aṭṭa*). Furthermore there are the *guvviṇī* and the *bālāvacchā*. In other respects any person is free to enter and may do so even as early as a child of seven years and a half,² though, to be sure, at this age there can hardly be the question of voluntariness. *pavvāvettae* consists in the act of handing over the outfit, and it may be performed both by a nun and a monk.³ It deserves mentioning that acc. to *Ṭhāṇ.* 56b this act as well as those immediately succeeding and, later, the studies, the confession, and the fasting-death, must be "orientated" towards the east and the north. The novice's head is shaved clean of hair (muṇḍāvettae). He is now muṇḍa, i.e. "bare", a word equally applied to the state following the suspension of the five senses and the four passions (Ṭhāṇ. 334b; 496a). From now on the hair may not grow to a length longer than cow-hair, and this, too, only during the rainy season. Every half month it is alternately cut by scissors (khura) or altogether removed by shaving; every six months or every year what of hair has grown is torn out (Pajj. 57; Nis. 10, 44). This is the act of the loya, comp. the lūya-siraga Dasā 6 XI. In the legend we read of the pañca-muṭṭhiya loya, the act of tearing out 5 handful of hair, being performed right at the beginning of one's becoming a monk, e.g. for Mahāvīra Āyāra II 15 § 22 (a),¹ for Subhaddā Pupph. 32a, and thus it is done up to this day. This process certainly goes back to an ecstatic eruption.