Article: Monastic clothing

Rājīmatī and Rathanemi in the cave
Image by Victoria and Albert Museum © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum, London

According to a saying of Jain scriptures frequently quoted in debates about nuns’ clothing, ‘it is not permitted that a nun may go without clothes’ (Bṛhatkalpa, in Jaini 1991: 56). This is mirrored in practice both past and present. Underlying this are the notions that inherently female qualities are denied if women go without clothes and that female nudity weakens self-discipline among males. The issue of female nudity is also strongly connected to the question of whether women can achieve a high enough spiritual level to reach liberation.

In Indian culture nudity signals rejection of bashfulness and shame, which means a nude woman must deny the qualities which society recognises as recommended to females. Female nudity also leads to increased excitement and lack of control in men, especially male ascetics, whose self-control could be endangered.

A well-known instance involves Rājīmatī and the monk Rathanemi, brother of her former fiancé Prince Nemi. After she had become a nun, Rājīmatī was caught in a heavy storm on her way to Mount Girnar. Seeking shelter in a cave, she took off her wet clothes and when she ‘was naked as [the day] she was born, thus she was seen by Rathanemi, whose [peace of mind] became [thereby] disturbed’ (Uttarādhyayana-sūtra, 22: 33–34; Jacobi 1895: 116–117).

These reasons mean a female ascetic cannot renounce clothes. The following statement is a good representative of the dilemma:

The teacher allows clothes for nuns, even though they are a possession, because in abandoning clothes there would be a total abandonment [of all the mendicant restraints], whereas in wearing clothes there is only a minor defect

Strīnirvāṇaprakaraṇa, verse 33
translated by Padmanabh S. Jaini, page 57, 1991

This leads to the conviction among Digambaras that a woman cannot reach emancipation. She must be reborn as a man to be liberated.

In contrast, Śvetāmbaras believe that clothes are not a possession but an aid to emancipation, like other items of monastic equipment. Therefore they believe that women are able to reach salvation.

The best example of the extensive debate between the two camps is the Strīnirvāṇaprakaraṇa (see Jaini 1991: 41–108). The text’s author is not a Śvetāmbara but a Yāpanīya, a short-lived mendicant order that tried to compromise between radical positions. The position of opponents to female emancipation is best summarised thus:

Nudity must be considered a prerequisite for mokṣa; if this were not so, it would not be obligatory for males also. Being unfit for nudity, a woman must be considered unfit for Siddhahood [= liberation of the soul], like anyone who is unfit to receive initiation

Strīnirvāṇaprakaraṇa, verse 56
translated by Padmanabh S. Jaini, page 57, 1991

Śvetāmbara nuns in their lodgings
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

Monks and nuns always wear white clothing, though some garments may be a pale cream colour. Some subsects may have identifying bands of colour on their robes.

The regulations on monastic clothing go into detail about the number, type and fabric of garments which Jain mendicants are permitted. Directions on where and how to wear them are also included in the scriptures.

Clothing depends to some degree on rank and status. Since nudity is associated with a high state of spirituality, lower-ranking monks among the Digambaras wear more clothes. Śvetāmbara monks wear three garments. Digambara nuns wear two items of clothing at most while their Śvetāmbara counterparts use up to four.

Digambara monks and novices
Image by Takeo Kimiya © Takeo Kimiya

The three stages of male monastic hierarchy among Digambaras are reflected in whether clothes are worn or not. The stages depend on the man’s level of spiritual advancement.

Digambaras connect these stages with the general scheme of the pratimās, recognised by both Digambaras and Śvetāmbaras. This scheme defines a progression of 11 degrees, by which a lay man slowly renounces household life (Jaini 1991: 38–39; Wiley 2004: 245). As the table makes clear, nudity thus represents the culmination of a graduated path.

Śvetāmbara monks and equipment
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

Śvetāmbara ascetics of both sexes wear clothing, which is closely defined by scriptural rules. Monks’ clothes are much simpler than nuns’ robes. Nuns’ garments are loose-fitting and almost entirely cover them.

Since time immemorial all Jain mendicants have walked barefoot. In recent years, however, a minority of Śvetāmbara mendicants has started using cotton sandals or socks. Usually, only aged or suffering monks or nuns wear them but younger mendicants sometimes use them too, especially in winter in northern India, when it gets very cold.

Two Śvetāmbara nuns
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

Śvetāmbara scriptures have a variety of technical terms for nuns’ garments, which are much more complicated than monks’ clothes. Nuns have to be covered more than monks because:

• they need more protection against potential dangers of the wandering life
• their physical attractions should be covered, to reduce the temptation to break celibacy.

The holy writings go into great detail about nuns’ clothing because of this. As an example, the table summarises material provided by Deo (1960: 480-–82), which indicates the clothing used in the first centuries of the Common Era.

Today the clothing of Śvetāmbara nuns is made of cotton and comprises three different pieces (Shântâ 1997), for which the older word saṃghaḍī can be used as a generic term. According to Shântâ, every nun has three skirts, three blouses and four veils. Most of the time the nuns cover their heads with their veils.

Nude monks carrying cloths
Image by Brooklyn Museum © CC-BY-NC

Both nude and clothed mendicants and Jinas are widespread in Jain art. Though practically all idols of Jinas share certain features, such as body pose and individual emblem, artistic representations of them have differed according to sect from the early medieval period. Since then Digambara images are easily identified from their severe style, nudity and downcast eyes. Śvetāmbara images have wide open eyes and are often richly painted, wearing loincloths and jewellery.

Though the symbolism of clothing is important in the Jain religion, depictions of mendicants in art vary widely. In addition, as artistic conventions have changed over the centuries, identification of sect and even status as a mendicant are often hard to prove conclusively.

The earliest Jina images are those from Mathurā in Uttar Pradesh. The oldest date back to the mid-second century BCE while the newer ones are from the 3rd century CE. They are all naked.

An image of Ṛṣabha wearing a lower garment is found in the fifth century CE but not earlier (Dundas 2002: 48).

Later on, in Digambara temples Jina are always shown without clothes, whereas they tend to be shown wearing a loincloth in Śvetāmbara temples.

As for depictions of ascetics in art, on the pedestals of some Jina images they are shown ‘with a small piece of cloth draped over their left forearms to hide their nudity’ (Wiley 2004: 142) and have thus been called ardha-phālaka – ‘with partial covering’. Despite various attempts (for example Jaini 2000), it is difficult to know for sure to which sect these monks belong and whether they could represent Yāpanīya ascetics.

In western Indian manuscript painting of the medieval period, the robes of Śvetāmbara mendicants are always depicted as white or transparent with large white dots. But on earlier palm-leaf manuscripts and in later times, the robe is simply shown as white, as it is today.

Nudity is not shown if the character is a nun. Paintings of the episode where the monk Rathanemi sees Rājīmatī naked do not depict her nude when she has taken off her wet clothes. The nun is shown at least half-covered by a piece of cloth or sometimes wears an odd garment that symbolises nudity.

Rather unusually, a Digambara monk may be shown with clothing, but this is difficult to interpret.

Digambara monk seeks alms
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

Even though there is a longstanding association of nudity with advanced spirituality in wider Indian society, the public nudity of Digambara monks has been and sometimes still is an issue in public. A society led by non-Jain religions has often banned or discouraged public nudity at different periods.

Public nudity was not allowed in certain areas ruled by Muslims during late medieval times and made the circulation of Digambara monks problematic. Śrutasāgara, a 16th-century commentator, reports the case of a Digambara monk who allowed his group of monks to cover themselves with a mat or a piece of cloth when they went out seeking alms or for other purposes (quoted in Jaini 1991: 101). This, however, was felt to be an exceptional toleration of the sensitivities of another faith. Though it was intended to adapt practice to unexpected circumstances, covering any part of the body for Digambara monks was still considered wrong behaviour.

During British rule, this was again an issue (Scholz 2011: 260). It is said to partly explain the decline of Digambara monastic communities. The authorities ruled that Digambara monks had to wear clothes or keep some covering with them when they were in public, to put on if someone objected to their nakedness.

In the early 20th century, however, the tradition of monastic nudity was revived through three men who decided to initiate themselves (Wiley 2004: 159).

Since then Digambara monks have adopted the three stages of monkhood, progressing to full nudity. This process was customary before the Mughal period.

There is a law against public nudity in India, although nudity for religious purposes is customary among the mendicants of some Hindu sects as well as Digambara Jains. Nowadays occasional press reports show that the nudity of Digambara monks can be a source of conflict between the Jain community and non-Jains. This is particularly the case in areas where there are not many Digambara Jains and thus the general population is not used to the sight of naked Digambara monks, finding public nudity disturbing. The monks therefore may try to avoid public places in daytime. This happened, for instance, in 2008 in Puducherry.

In 2003 the late Digambara Jain activist Bal Patil made an official complaint to the Press Council of India about an article published on 2 March 2003 in the Sunday Times of India. Entitled ‘Privacy, Nudity & Jazz’, it included the following statement: ‘A certain sect of Jains – Digambars – who move about uncovered in public invoke their right to religious freedom’. No prosecution was made because the journalist’s argument that the sentence has to be read in context and was written in good faith was accepted. However, it was recognised that the feelings of a minority could have been hurt by this statement.

Such examples show that the nudity of Digambara monks can be a sensitive issue in today’s India as well as in the past, even though it is not a common sight given the small number of munis.