Article: Monastic equipment

Digambara monk sitting cross-legged
Image by Jainworld © Jainworld.com

This has become the most obvious way to differentiate Śvetāmbara and Digambara mendicants, who form the two main Jain sectarian traditions. Śvetāmbara means ‘white-clad’ while the latter means ‘sky-clad’ – that is, naked.

However, nudity applies only to certain Digambara monks – the munis. It applies neither to their nuns – āryikās – nor to those who are not considered full monks or nuns – kṣullakas and kṣullikās. Practising total nudity is considered part of being able to renounce all possessions and live without attachment to anything. In 19th-century British India, nudity was seen as disturbing and this attitude is said to partly explain the reduction in the number of Digambara monks in that period. In today’s India this feeling is also occasionally found so that Digambara monks sometimes avoid public places in daytime. Among the Jains, however, nudity produces great respect because only those who are capable of full detachment from worldly matters can practise it in total freedom.

In Śvetāmbara early scriptures, there is some flexibility regarding the connection of clothes to the idea of non-possession. As suggested by the name, Śvetāmbara monastic robes are white. In Western Indian manuscript paintings of the medieval period, the robe of the Śvetāmbara mendicants is depicted as white or transparent with white dots. In later times, the robe is simply shown as white, as it is today.

Śvetāmbara ascetics are allowed to wear three garments – two of cotton, worn inside, and one of wool, worn on top. But the rules on clothing vary according to the status of the mendicant, the age of the texts discussing it and the practice of various monastic orders. The simple clothes are plainly stitched, then folded and wrapped around the body. The mendicants wear the complete outfit whenever they go out of their lodgings.

From time immemorial Jain mendicants have walked barefoot. In recent years, however, a minority has started wearing cotton sandals or socks. This development is usually witnessed only among aged or suffering monks or nuns, but some younger ones wear them, especially in winter in North India.

Śvetāmbara monastic bowls
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

This implement is used by Śvetāmbara mendicants to receive and eat the food donated by lay Jains. The Digambara mendicants eat directly from their hands. Hence they are known as pāṇi-pātra – ‘having hands as recipient’.

The common word used for the alms bowl is the Sanskrit pātra, which simply means ‘recipient’.

The bowls used by the Śvetāmbara monks are made of gourds, wood or clay. They are coated using sesame oil, at least in olden times (Deo 1956: 267). Today, begging bowls are generally red or dark orange. But among the Ancala-gaccha, one of the prominent Śvetāmbara Mūrti-pūjaka orders, they are black.

Bowls of different sizes can be piled up one inside the other like Russian dolls. A specific vessel for liquids can also be used. There are various articles connected with the begging bowl, such as a piece of string to use as a carrying handle. Details of these are provided in the Ogha-niryukti or Cheda-sūtras and in the scriptures.

An ornamental motif such as an auspicious symbol or a small design is sometimes painted on the bowls, for decoration. It may be used to distinguish the bowls used by different mendicants. However, according to the vow of non-possession, a bowl is not the private property of a particular individual.

Detail of a Śvetāmbara broom
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

All Jain mendicants use a broom, regardless of their monastic order. They use it in all their daily activities and it never leaves their side. This is why it is so striking for observers in the past or present. Mendicants use the broom to ‘sweep the area before sitting or lying down in order to avoid harming insects and minute forms of life’ (Wiley 2004: 177).

Śvetāmbara mendicants use a broom ‘made of long strands of soft white wool that are attached to a short wooden handle’ (Wiley 2004: 177). This is called by either the Sanskrit term rajoharaṇa or the Prakrit word oghā. The size of the broom differs among the monastic orders. Among the Sthānaka-vāsins, who do not use the monastic staff, the broom has a much longer handle than among the Mūrti-pūjakas. The latter sometimes wrap the handle in a cloth decorated with the eight auspicious symbols.

Digambara mendicants use a broom made of peacock-tail feathers, shed naturally by the birds. It is known by the Sanskrit word picchikā or its modern equivalent – piñchī. The feathers are arranged in a circle and attached to a short handle.

Śvetāmbara Sthānaka-vāsin or Terā-panthin nuns
Image by arjunstc – Arjun © CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

The Sanskrit word for this piece of mendicant equipment is mukhavastrikā – ‘mouth-cloth’ – but the modern form – muṃhpatti – is more commonly used. Traditionally, this is a small rectangular piece of cotton which the mendicant keeps in front of his mouth when he or she speaks.

The mouth-cloth is intended to:

• prevent minute living beings from entering the mouth and being killed or hurt
• protect wind-bodied beings, which are one-sensed living beings according to the Jain classifications of life, when breathing out.

In many paintings of ascetics the mouth-cloth is depicted as a small white rectangle, which is easily recognisable.

The way to use the mouth-covering has been the subject of several debates over time. The result is that today it has become a marker of sectarian identity.

Among the Sthānaka-vāsin and Terāpanthin orders the mouth-cloth can be made of a kind of whitish plastic nowadays.

Monastic bookstand with embroidered svastikas
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

The term ‘bookstand’ is a convenient though partly inadequate equivalent of the Sanskrit word sthāpanācārya. It means literally ‘substitute teacher’ and is used among Śvetāmbara Mūrti-pūjaka mendicants.

The bookstand consists of four sticks of wood bound together about halfway down, which open out either side of the binding. This enables the bookstand to support its own weight and creates an empty space between the upper sticks. This space is occupied by a piece of cloth tied to each of the wooden sticks. Today five cowrie shells wrapped in cloth are tied to the stand. They represent the Five Supreme Entities – pañca-parameṣṭhin. This detail is not found in earlier times, as shown in depictions of bookstands in Jain manuscripts.

The bookstand is placed in front of the mendicant when he or she performs various religious acts, such as confession or repentance – pratikramaṇa – and is alone. It represents the absent teacher and, more generally, the whole mendicant community. During preaching, a manuscript or book is placed on it, even when the ascetic’s teacher or other mendicants are present.

Śvetāmbara monastic equipment
Image by Nalini Balbir © Nalini Balbir

Ascetics from Śvetāmbara Mūrti-pūjaka orders carry a long wooden staff, known by the Sanskrit word daṇḍa. Mendicants in other Śvetāmbara orders, such as the Sthānaka-vāsins and the Terāpanthins, do not use a staff. Over the centuries Śvetāmbara Jains have had some debates about this implement.

In today’s practice, the staff is made of a variety of woods, particularly sīsam (Dalbergia sisoo), which is hard and long lasting. It has various shades, ranging from beige and light brown to dark brown. The top part can be decorated with a svastika, one of the most important auspicious symbols. The length depends on the mendicant’s height because when held upright the staff should reach the forehead. The staff is about 5 centimetres in diameter.

The staff was originally meant for protection. Mendicants travel only on foot and often have to cross wilderness. A passage of an old canonical Śvetāmbara scripture from the Ācārānga-sūtra describes Mahāvīra, the 24th Jina, walking among hostile people and carrying a staff as protection against dogs. He obviously did not harm anyone, but having a stick was enough to deter potential attackers.

Nowadays mendicants use the staff as a tool when walking, for instance to help estimate water depth. Since it is human height, a staff could also have been used like a gnomon, a time-measuring instrument that uses the length of shadows.

Mendicants carry the staff when they go outside, especially when begging alms. On these occasions they have to wear their full equipment. They hold the bowls in their right hand and the staff in their left. They do the same when they are wandering – vihāra.

When ascetics are in their lodgings – upāśraya – the staff is either kept outside resting on the wall or inside in a corner. It is primarily an implement for outdoors.

The top of the staff is an elaborately sculpted knob in four parts. This can be seen in manuscript illustrations. In recent times the decoration on the staff has taken on religious symbolism that makes it more than a mere practical object. Each part is understood in cosmic and doctrinal terms.

This symbolism does not seem to be found in literature earlier than the 20th century but it is familiar to present-day mendicants, who pass it on orally.

Thus the staff is also a physical emblem of the Jain universe and Jain teachings.

Nuns carry their mendicant equipment
Image by Sam Syverson © CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Śvetāmbara mendicants going along the roads and carrying bundles wrapped in cotton cloth in their hands or on their shoulders are a commonplace sight in northern, central and western India. When they practise vihāra they take all their monastic equipment and other items. Apart from the usual monastic equipment, they may carry manuscripts, printed books or personal notebooks.

When these bundles are too numerous or too heavy, or when the group of walking mendicants is large, they can be carried in a small van that follows the ascetics. All these practical arrangements are made by the local lay communities.