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{{Short description|Female mendicant in Jainism}}
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[[File:Jain meditation.jpg|thumb|Aryikas (sadhvis) meditating near [[Vrindavan]], India.]]
'''''Aryika''''', also known as ''Sadhvi'', is a female mendicant ([[nun]]) in [[Jainism]].{{sfn|Jaini|1991|p=xxviii, 180}}
{{Jainism}}
[[File:Samavasarana.jpg|thumb|In ''Samavasarana'' of the ''[[Tirthankara]]'', ''aryikas'' sit in the third hall.]]

== History ==
In the traditional [[Digambara]] tradition, a male human being is considered closest to the apex with the potential to achieve liberation, particularly through asceticism. Women must gain karmic merit, to be reborn as man, and only then can they achieve spiritual liberation in the Digambara sect of Jainism.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jeffery D Long|title=Jainism: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajAEBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT36|year=2013|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-0-85773-656-7|pages=36–37}}</ref><ref name=harveyp182>{{cite book|author=Graham Harvey |title=Religions in Focus: New Approaches to Tradition and Contemporary Practices |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wrTsCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT182|year=2016|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-134-93690-8|pages=182–183}}</ref> This view is different from the Svetambara sect that believes that women too can achieve liberation from ''[[Saṃsāra]]'' by being mendicants and through ascetic practices.<ref name=harveyp182/><ref>{{cite book|author= Paul Dundas|title=The Jains |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X8iAAgAAQBAJ |year=2003|publisher= Routledge|isbn=978-0415266055 |pages= 55–59 }}</ref>

According to [[Svetambara]] Jain texts, from ''Kalpasutras'' onwards, Jainism has had more ''sadhvis'' than ''sadhus'' (female than male mendicants). In Tapa Gacch of the modern era, the ratio of sadhvis to sadhus (nuns to monks) is about 3.5 to 1. This is much higher, and in contrast to the gender ratio historically observed in Buddhism and Hinduism.<ref>{{cite book|author=John E. Cort|title=Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PZk-4HOMzsoC |year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-803037-9|page=47}}</ref>

Traditionally, in contrast to Svetambara, the Digambara sect has had far less ''sadhvis''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Flügel|title=Studies in Jaina History and Culture: Disputes and Dialogues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CIgqBgAAQBAJ |year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-23552-0|pages=314–331}}</ref> In contemporary times, some Digambara organizations include ''sandhvis'', but the ratio of sadhvis to sadhus (nuns to monks) has been about 1 to 3.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Flügel|title=Studies in Jaina History and Culture: Disputes and Dialogues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CIgqBgAAQBAJ |year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-23552-0|pages=353–361}}</ref>

== Conduct ==
A Sadhvi, like a Sadhu, enters the mendicant order by making the Five vows: Ahimsa (Non-violence or Non-injury), Satya (Truthfulness), Asteya (Non-stealing), Brahmacharya (Abstinence from sex and sensual pleasures), and Aparigraha (Non-attachment).<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Flügel|title=Studies in Jaina History and Culture: Disputes and Dialogues|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CIgqBgAAQBAJ |year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-23552-0|pages=223–225}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Kurt Titze|author2=Klaus Bruhn|title=Jainism: A Pictorial Guide to the Religion of Non-violence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=loQkEIf8z5wC&pg=PA213|year=1998|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1534-6|pages=213–216}}</ref>

Describing the conduct of ''aryikas'', [[Champat Rai Jain]] in his book, ''Sannyāsa Dharma'' writes: {{cquote|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.<ref>{{citation |last=Jain |first=Champat Rai |author-link=Champat Rai Jain |title=Sannyasa Dharma |url =https://archive.org/details/SannyasaDharma |date=1926 |quote={{PD-notice}} | p=141}}</ref>}}

Jains supporting the spiritual liberation of womankind note that their conduct is inclusive in such a path: "It is by way of the Three Jewels that one attains moksa. Nowhere in the Agamas is it stated that women are unable to realise these [[Ratnatraya|Three Jewels]]" (the right faith, right knowledge, and right conduct).{{sfn|Shanta|1997|p=646}}

==Gyanmati==
{{main|Gyanmati Mataji}}
Gyanmati Mataji is a Jain nun having the rank of ''Ganini Pramukha''.<ref>{{citation |title=World's Tallest Idol Of Jain Teerthankar Lord Rishabhdeva To Be Sanctified |url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-world-s-tallest-idol-of-jain-teerthankar-lord-rishabhdeva-to-be-sanctified-2176519 |work=[[Daily News and Analysis|DNA]] |date=11 February 2016 }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Jain monasticism]]
* [[Jain schools and branches]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{citation |last=Jaini |first=Padmanabh S. |author-link=Padmanabh Jaini |title=Gender and Salvation: Jaina Debates on the Spiritual Liberation of Women |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GRA-uoUFz3MC |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=1991 |isbn=0-520-06820-3 }}
* {{cite book |last=Shanta |first=N. |date=1997 |title=The Unknown Pilgrims, The Voice of the Sadhvis: The History, Spirituality, and Life of the Jaina Women Ascetics |isbn=8170305357}}

{{Jain Gurus}}
{{Jainism topics}}

[[Category:Jain monasticism]]
[[Category:Jainism and women]]

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Aryika - Revision history

UpdateBot at 10:46, 30 April 2022