The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (393 page)

li,
dassas
la
) of the novice
(P
li,
s
ma
ari
) and are called
dasas
lavanti
, ‘those of the ten precepts’.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Bhik
u,
c
rya
(also Bh
kanji
,

1726–1803).
Founder of the Jain reforming sect, the Terapanth. He founded the Terapanth in 1759 on the basis of extreme discipline and rigour. He followed the life of a wandering beggar, and by the time he died, he had initiated forty-nine monks and fifty-six nuns.
The name ‘Terapanth’ is variously explained:
tera
means (in Rajasthani) both ‘thirteen’ and ‘your’. Thus the ‘Thirteen Path’ may be the reliance on the thirteen basic elements of ascetic practice which Bhiksu was restoring (the
Five Great Vows
, the Five Attentive Actions,
samiti
, and the Three Protections,
gupti
); or it may be the number of early followers (thirteen monks and thirteen laymen); or it may be the devotion to
‘you
, Lord
Mah
v
ra
’. He elevated the role of the
c
rya, to become the sole authority over adherents, and to appoint his own successor. The eighth
c
rya, Tulsi, who succeeded in 1936, took this out into the world (especially of politics and economics), arguing that the accelerating power of humans to destroy must be counteracted by an accelerating power to reform spiritually. He therefore founded the
Anuvrata
Movement, from
a
u
(‘atom’, with deliberate reference to ‘atom bomb’) and
vrata
, ‘vow’: ‘A small, or atomic, vow alone has the power to ward off and counter the threat of an atom bomb.’