Prof. Dr. Lawrence A. Babb
According to a survey of rainy season retreat locations for the year of my research in Jaipur (B. Jain 1990: 62), in 1990 there were 6, 162 ascetics (1373 monks and 4,789 nuns) among image-worshiping Svetambar Jains. The Sthanakvasis had a total of 2,738 (532 monks, 2,206 nuns), and the Terapanthis had 719 (157 monks, 562 nuns) (ibid.). Digambar ascetics are very few by comparison with the Svetambars. According to the same source, in 1990 there were only 225 muni 's and 130 aryika's (nuns who, unlike Svetambar nuns, do not take full vows), giving a total of 355 Digambar ascetics (ibid.: 63).
The temple-going Svetambar ascetics are distributed among several currently existing ascetic lineages. An ascetic lineage, called a gacch, is an order of male and female ascetics tracing ritual and spiritual "descent" through links between preceptors and disciples. As far as I am aware, all currently active ascetic lineages trace their descent to Sudharma, who was one of Lord Mahavir's eleven chief disciples.[1] As John Cort points out (1991b: 554), the formation of a gacch is typically conceptualized in relation to spiritual lapses and reform. A charismatic ascetic arises in response to laxity in ascetic discipline; having reestablished the proper ascetic rigor, he becomes the apical spiritual ancestor of a new gacch. The survey of rainy season retreats lists the following currently functioning gacch's in order of numerical strength: Tapa Gacch, Acal Gacch, Khartar Gacch, Tristuti Gacch, Parsvacandra Gacch, and Vimal Gacch (B. Jain 1990: 61-62). These differ greatly in size and influence. The Tapa Gacch, especially influential in Gujarat, is the largest and most flourishing today: In 1990 it had a total of 5,472 ascetics (1,246 male, 4,226 female) divided into sixteen subgroups (samuday s). No other gacch comes near it in size; the next largest, the Acal Gacch, has a total of only 231 ascetics listed, and the smallest, the Vimal Gacch, lists only six ascetics.
A gacch is further subdivided into samuday's, which in turn are further subdivided into parivar's (on these points, see Cort 1991: 559-63). The model is that of the descent group. A samuday consists of those who are, by disciplic succession, the spiritual descendants of a particular sadhu, the apical spiritual ancestor. He is typically a charismatic acarya whose career seems to his followers to have represented a "new beginning" of some kind or another (ibid.: 559). Cort suggests that, from a social point of view, the gacch is the equivalent of jati (a term usually rendered as "caste" or "subcaste" in English), with the samuday then emerging as an ascetic analogue of the lineage and the parivar as the ascetic version of the family (which is in fact the meaning of the word) or small lineage segment (ibid.: 560). As Cort also points out, these ascetic institutions reflect the agnatic values prevailing in the wider social world: monks constitute the core of these entities, and nuns are attached to monks' lineages, just as women become attached to the families and lineages of their husbands by marriage.
As noted already, Ahmedabad and Jaipur are dominated by two different gacch's. The predominant influence in Ahmedabad is the cur-rently flourishing Tapa Gacch. The organization of the Tapa Gacch has been well described by Cort (1989: Ch. 3). More relevant to the concerns of Chapters Three and Four of this book, however, is the Khartar Gacch, to which most of the temple-going Svetambar Jains of Jaipur are linked. With a total of only 214 ascetics, 22 monks and 192 nuns (B, Jain 1990: 62), the Khartar Gacch is obviously small. Only two samuday's are now extant: Sukhsagarji's and Mohanlalji's (so named for their founders). A third, Krpacandraji's, became extinct around mid-century, and the remaining nuns (there were no monks) were absorbed by Mohanlalji's samuday. The principal Svetambar temples of Jaipur are affiliated with the Khartar Gacch, although there is one large Tapa Gacch temple in the old city. Moreover, the cult of the Dadagurus (see Chapter Three), a Khartar Gacch phenomenon, is a dominant feature of the religious lives of the Svetambar Jains of the city. The Khartar Gacch also has significant numbers of followers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and other areas of Rajasthan.
In addition to monks and nuns, there remain today a very few yati's in the Khartar Gacch. The yati's are ascetics who own property, maintain residence in one place, and are in some instances noncelibate. This institution is today in a state of nearly total desuetude, and has apparently completely disappeared in the Tapa Gacch (Cort 1989: 97-102; Laidlaw 1995: Ch. 3). There are still a few Khartar Gacch yati´s - espe-cially, I am told, in Bikaner - but I met only one in Jaipur, an elderly gentleman and a rather sad figure, a vestige of a bygone era. In the past, however, they were very important figures in the Khartar Gacch. The standard puja of the Dadagurus (to be discussed later) was authored some ninety years ago by a yati whose name was.Rddhisar.
An apparent effect of the shortage of monks in the Khartar Gacch (currently only 22) is the relatively high status of nuns. In the Tapa Gacch, for example, it is not customary for nuns to preach publicly (Cort 19991b: 557), but this is quite common in the Khartar Gacch. In fact, because of the relative scarcity of monks in the Khartar Gacch community, the preaching function of ascetics seems to have gone largely by default to nuns (see Reynell 1991: 60-61). In Jaipur the two most respected and beloved ascetic figures of recent times were both nuns. One was Vicaksansri, who died in 1980. Her image is now enshrined in an imposing memorial at Mohan Bari (the site of our five-kalyanak puja of Parsvanath).The community's major upasray (community hall for religious functions) is named Vicaksan Bhavan after her. The other beloved nun, Sajjansri, died in 1989. A memorial struc-ture for her, also at Mohan Bari, was under construction at the time of my stay. As far as I am aware, no monks have attracted such strong veneration among Jaipur's Khartar Gacch Jains in recent times.[2]
