Contributed by Nalini Balbir
Internal hierarchy (Cort 1991: 663) is a characteristic of all Jain monastic orders. Śvetāmbara canonical scriptures show this is not a new phenomenon, but the terms and levels have changed.
Among today’s Digambara munis or naked ascetics, who are limited in number, the hierarchy is generally less marked because the main factor in a band of mendicants is personal charisma. A wandering group of ascetics includes only one muni, together with nuns and novices who are, by definition, subordinate to him.
As a rule monks, and especially nuns, are expected to serve their superiors – sevā or vaiyāvṛttya. They must perform obligatory duties such as confession and repentance in front of him when he or she is present. When he or she is absent, the superior is symbolised by the sthāpanācārya. These are signs of good education and modesty – vinaya. Relations between mendicants in the same monastic order combine such features with devotion and a sense of togetherness.
The monastic hierarchy is based on seniority in religious life, which means how long a mendicant has been a monk or nun, on knowledge of the scriptural tradition or ability to lead. It does not depend on chronological age. A nun is always subordinate to a monk, even though she may have equal or greater monastic seniority.
The Śvetāmbara scriptures that deal with monastic organisation give the levels of mendicant hierarchy.
Rank |
Meaning in English |
|
---|---|---|
Monk |
Nun |
|
thera |
|
‘elder’, referring to seniority and knowledge |
āyariya – Prakrit |
|
‘teacher’ or ‘superior’ |
vajjhāya – Prakrit |
|
‘preceptor’ or ‘tutor’ |
pavatta |
pavattiṇī |
‘promotor’, in charge of discipline |
gaṇi |
|
leader of a group of monks |
niggantha – Prakrit |
nigganthī |
ordinary monk or nun |
This is a rough picture, as the terms may be used differently and may not match this ranking. For instance, a teacher can be an elder and so on. Even so, the presence of teachers, preceptors and ordinary monks among the ‘Five Entities’ praised as part of the ‘Fivefold Homage’ – Pañca-namaskāra-mantra or Navakār-mantra – suggests that these three terms are fundamental.
Among Śvetāmbara Mūrti-pūjak monastic orders, the members are ranked as shown in the table.
Rank |
Meaning in English |
|
---|---|---|
Monk |
Nun |
|
gacchādhipati or sūri |
|
head of the main gaccha |
ācārya |
|
'teacher’, though usually translated as 'mendicant leader' |
gaṇi |
|
'leader of a group’ |
pravartak |
|
‘promoter’ |
upādhyāya |
|
'preceptor’ |
sādhu |
sādhvī |
ordinary monk or nun |
The basic frame of mendicant life has always been a small group centring on a religious teacher. This entourage is called parivāra or kula, which in common parlance means ‘family’. Indeed, especially among Śvetāmbara Mūrti-pūjak monastic orders, there is ‘a replication of many elements of the [lay] social order’ (Cort 1991: 652).
Śvetāmbara canonical scriptures detailing rules for daily monastic life – the Cheda-sūtras – are well aware of this and consider it a guarantee of harmonious religious life:
The entourage (parivāra) of an instructor [= ācārya], compared to the father, includes on the one hand his ‘descendants’ (pupil, pupil’s pupil, and also pupil of the pupil’s pupils) and on the other his ‘ancestors’. […] A lineage is thus constituted by seven generations […] The monks who have been brought up in the same ‘families’ and the same ‘flocks’ – and consequently in the same religious customs (pravrajyā), and those who have received the same teaching (śruta) from the same teacher are ‘members of the same party’. An educational community produces the strongest affinities
Caillat
1975, pages 27–28
The head of the working unit is always a monk, with nuns dependent on him. But as nuns live in monastic lodgings – upāśrayas – that are separate from monks, in practice one of them is the leader of the other nuns on the same premises, at least temporarily.
Evidence from the past as well as the present shows that groupings at these levels are quite fluid. Close disciples of a given teacher tend to travel and stay together, but groups may be rearranged. For instance members of various bands may be combined into different groups before the rainy season, when mendicants have to reside in one place.
Among Terāpanthins, who have a central organisation, the head of the sect decides which mendicants will form each group and their destinations for the coming rainy season. This takes place in the ceremony known as Māryadā Mahotsav.
During the fifth century BCE, approximately the time of the 24th Jina Mahāvīra, living in organised communities – sthavira-kalpa – was not the only option for monks. They could choose the ‘Jina’s mode of life’ – Jina-kalpa. This meant living outside any social structure, either alone or in small groups without any hierarchy. It implied the desirable condition of increased detachment, and could involve total nakedness or not using alms bowls. In this respect the Jina-kalpika monks imitated the mode of life followed by the first Jina, Ṛṣabhanātha or Lord Ṛṣabha, and the last, Mahāvīra.
This mode of life requires great moral strength and is typical of early Jainism. Monks who lived as the Jinas did are exceptional cases and are perceived as representing extreme asceticism. Both Śvetāmbara and Digambara traditions agree that the Jina-kalpa came to an end ‘with the death of Jambū, which took place 64 years after the death of Mahāvīra’ (Wiley 2004: 108).
British Library. Or. 11921. Unknown author. 1488
British Library. Or. 14290. Gangādāsa. 1792