History of the Parivrajaka (An Old and Rare Book)

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Indian DHARMA is nothing but a conglomeration of faiths and beliefs, rites and rituals, thoughts and ideas, doctrines and tenets of different ethnic groups since the genesis of human civilisation. Within the colossal fold of DHARMA various kinds of human culture and civilisation have been nurtured. The existence of the monks and ascetics, and the activities and achievements of them can not be ignored or minimised since their significant contribution in moulding the religious history of India through the ages is immense. Thought fermenting concepts of these agnostic seers and sages made ideological revolutions pertaining to religious life of India.

In this connection we may recapitulate the observation of S. Radhakrishnan (Foreward on the National Culture of India, by S. Abid Hussain, NBT. New Delhi 1978, pp. vii-viii):

"Religion is a transforming experience. It is not a theory of God. It is a spiritual consciousness. Belief and conduct, rites and ceremonies, dogmas and authorities are subordinate to the art of self-discovery and contact with the Divine. When the individual withdraws his soul from all outward events, gathers himself together inwardly, strives with concentration, there breaks upon him an experience, sacred, strange, wondrous, which quickens within him, lays hold of him, becomes his very being. Even those who are the children of science and reason, must submit to the fact of spiritual experience which is primary and positive. We may dispute theologies but we cannot deny facts. The fire of life in its visible burnings com- pels, assent, though not the fumbling speculations of smokers sitting around the fire. While realisation is a fact, the theory of reality and opinion about it, between the mystery and godliness and belief in God. This is the secular conception of the state though it is not generally understood."

The present study not only encompasses how the holy men- rishis and munis, yaris and yogis, tapasvasis and sannyasis, framanas and Mikshur-held a fascination to the Indian mind, but also to portrary their peculiar characteristic features-eg. beliefs, practices, etc. While dealing with the genesis of the itinerant monks (Parivriljaka) and their ascetic institutions, the work under review makes a rapid survey of Brahmanical asceticism alongwith other monastic organisations, viz. the Buddhist and the Jaina monachism, and their impact on the life and culture of ancient India.

At the initial stage the ascetic movement first made its appearance with the greatest intellectual and religious force of the time. It captivated the noblest minds and produced the finest flowers of the human spirit, of whom many known and unknown seers of the Upanishads, the Buddha and Mahavira or Goilla were representatives. For many subsequent centuries, the supreme spiritual life of the land found for itself, in its discipline, a sufficient and a satisfying expression.

And that too because it was never a static institution, though predominatly a conservative one in many respects. It did react to internal and external forces, and its history is mainly an account this reaction and adjustment to or defiance towards changing environments. In this context one may recall the observation of a noted scholar with regard to the Buddhist monachism, which is equally applicable to other monastic organisations as well-"Buddhist monasticism has been, like all other historic institutions, the result of a gradual process, changing under pressure of its sociological environments and its own inner principle of evolution." (EBM., p. 1)

In fact, it is believed that 'Sannyasa has originally the doctrine of the dissenters from the orthodox ritualism of the ancient Aryans; and to them 'the institution of Sannyasa arose out of the recognition of transitoriness of all worldy objects. This sort of environment enveloped the eastern region of subcontinent at the time when the school of the wandering monks took its footing on the society.