Monastic Ranks
Full munis in both the Svetambara and Digambara traditions are assigned to different ranks as mentioned in the Namokar Mantra:
- Acharya: leader of the order
- Upajjhaya: a learned monk, who both teaches and studies himself
- Muni: an ordinary ascetic
In the Digambara traditions, a junior monk can have several ranks:
- Ailak: uses one piece of cloth
- Kshullak: uses two pieces of cloth
- Aryika: all women ascetics wear clothing
The Terapanthi sect of the Svetambara has a new rank of junior monks, samana.
Read more about this topic: Jain Monasticism
Famous quotes containing the words monastic and/or ranks:
“I like a church; I like a cowl;
I love a prophet of the soul;
And on my heart monastic aisles
Fall like sweet strains, or pensive smiles;
Yet not for all his faith can see
Would I that cowled churchman be.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man’s greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Over all history it has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce.”
—John Kenneth Galbraith (b. 1908)