Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31.20

c31.20

**Rules of Admission to Monkhood.** We shall now consider the rules governing the education and organization of the monasteries as given by our pilgrim. It would appear that the rules laid down in the Vinaya texts regarding admission to monasteries, to priesthood or ordination, were substantially followed in the days of I-tsing, whose evidence based upon first-hand observation is thus another welcome confirmation of that of the sacred texts whose precepts are otherwise liable to be supposed as merely *ideal* in their character. The student who wants to become a priest (i.e. homeless) first finds a teacher to whom he relates his wish. The teacher through some means or other inquires whether he has any moral disqualification, such as patricide, matricide, and the like. If he is eligible, the proposed teacher accepts him as a candidate for orders and leaves him at leisure ten days or a month and then imparts to him the five precepts (prohibiting murder, theft, lying, adultery, and intoxication). The candidate is now called an *Upāsaka*, which is his *first step* into the Law of the Buddha. Then the teacher, getting for him a triple clothing, a bowl, and a filter, addresses himself to the Saṁgha and relates that the candidate has a desire to be a priest (i.e. homeless). When the Saṁgha has admitted him, the teacher on his behalf asks the *Āchāryas* to conduct the ceremony. After this the candidate has hi hair and beard shaven, bathes, and, putting on the priestly cloak, receives the bowl and becomes a *Pravrajita*. Next, in the presence of his teacher (*Upādhyāya*), he *Āchārya* imparts to him the ten precepts by reciting or reading them. After the priest has been instructed in these precepts, he is called *Śramaṇera*. The Śramaṇera is eligible for full ordination on his attaining the required age of twenty years. Then his *Upādhyāya*, arranging for him the six requisites [viz. the triple clothing or *tichīvara*, the bowl, the *nishīdana*, and a water-strainer (but the Pāli texts mention some different requisites, eight in number)], gets up a meeting of the Saṁgha of at least nine other members before whom he presents the candidate who pays respects three times to each member. After this ceremony, the candidate is instructed three times to learn the Mahāśīlas. Then the *Upādhyāya* invests him before the assembly with the garments, and the bowl which has to be approved by them and then accepted by the candidate. After this the Āchārya imparts to him the Mahāśīlas and he then becomes an *Upasampanna* Bhikshu. The exact hour, date, month, and season of the ordination are then written down so that his seniority might be determined. The last act of the ceremony is the gift by the candidate of some such thing as a girdle or a filter to the teachers or members of the Saṁgha ordaining him as a token of his gratitude to them (adapted from ch. xix).