Aryika

In Samavasarana of the Tirthankara, aryikas sit in the third hall.

Aryika is the term used to refer female monastic (nun) in Jainism.

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Conduct

Describing the conduct of aryikas, Champat Rai Jain in his book, Sannyāsa Dharma writes:

“ The aryika does not visit, the house of a layman alone or without purpose. She is allowed a single robe which is to cover her entire body, from head to foot. In all other respects she conducts herself as a saint of the opposite sex. The aryika is not qualified, as such, to aspire for the pandita-pandita death, but she expects to reach it, from a male body, in a subsequent incarnation. The reason for this is to be found in the fact that a female body is not like a male body in all respects, so that salvation is not possible for a female from the female form. Short of this, however, there is no other difference between the two, the male saint and the aryika (nun), and the latter obtains heaven as the result of her asceticism, when, destroying the liability to be reborn in the female form, she appears in the heavenly regions in the male body of a deva (a resident of the heavenly regions). In her subsequent re-birth amongst men she will retain the male sex, and will then be qualified for salvation through the pandita-pandita mode of passage from 'death to Life Eternal in Nirvana. The aryika sits down to take her food, but in other respects follows the rules by which saints of the opposite sex are governed. ”

Gyanmati

Main article: Gyanmati Mataji

Gyanmati Mataji is a Jain nun having the rank of Ganini Pramukha.

See also

• Jain monasticism

References

• Jaini, Padmanabh S. (1991), Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women, University of California Press, ISBN 0-520-06820-3