(1) For ways in which
renouncers use stories in sermons, see John Cort, "An Overview of the Jaina Puranas," in Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts, ed.
Each Mahant had their dhunis (fire-altar,
renouncer's hearth, etc).
Veronique Bouillier, discussing the Naths of Nepal, argues that their symbolic value for kings derived in part from their capacity to combine traits characteristic of both
renouncers and householders.
At the same time, many Jains refuse to give alms to Hindu
renouncers (except out of cautious respect for the
renouncers' worldly magico-spiritual powers), and refer to Hindu
renouncers contemptuously as "beggars," precisely because from a Jain perspective they are not suitable recipients.(36)
Openshaw attributes the discrepancy between the large number of Hindu Bauls in Rarh and Bagri who are
renouncers and the small number of Muslim Bauls or fakirs who have taken initiation to the "absence of an ideal of renunciation in Islam" (p.
This text depicts Vaikhanasas and other Vaisnavas as priestly
renouncers (22, 13-15; 19-22) and gives to them, and to other Vaisnava groups, an important role in the ritual installation of images and in the festival of the purifying threads (pavitrotsava) (20 and 21, 78ff.).
The next chapter is devoted to "Gifting and Grace"--i.e., the laity's support (through material donations, praise, and worship) of Jain male and female
renouncers (the latter, by the way, greatly outnumber the former), and the benefits this is felt to confer.
Lipner notes with some distaste that Brahmabandhab's ashrama would have been neither very Christian, because of the caste separations, nor very Hindu, since
renouncers are supposed to give up their social personalities.
Even though the ritual remains, the transformation of the meticulous vedic prescription into a simple act done at mealtime renders it especially suitable to world
renouncers.
By ignoring relevant Indian physical analyses and analogous powerful notions such as guna and dosa, both scholars are left struggling to import other ways of distinguishing kings or ksatriyas (whom Quigley credits with a major role in caste origins, contra Dumont) from brahmans or
renouncers (whose roles Quigley discredits, also contra Dumont).
"(170) Ascetic
renouncers, however, lack any intention to preserve such (things).
In most editions of Tirukkural this and the following three chapters, "the preeminence of rain" (vancirappu), "the greatness of
renouncers" (nittar perumai), and "affirming the power of virtuous conduct" (aranvaliyuruttal),(21) are designated the "preface" (payiram) to the text.