Note 5 — Front matter
Reading edition
Footnote 5: Even the canonical works of the Śvetâmbara, as for example, the Âchârâm[postvocalic] , Vol. XXII, p. 88-186) contain directions for nuns. It seems, however, that they have never played such an important part as in Buddhism. At the present time, the few female orders among the Śvetâmbara consist entirely of virgin widows, whose husbands have died in childhood, before the beginning of their life together. It is not necessary to look upon the admission of nuns among the Śvetâmbara as an imitation of Buddhist teaching, as women were received into some of the old Brahmanical orders; see my note to Manu, VIII, 363, (Sac. Bks. of the East, Vol. XXV, p. 317). Among the Digambaras, exclusion of women was demanded from causes not far to seek. They give as their reason for it, the doctrine that women are not capable of attaining Nirvân ; see Peterson, Second Report, in Jour. Bom. Br. R. As. Soc. Vol. XVII, p. 84.