ABSTRACT
It is Lavaj⁄ who is usually credited with the introduction of a practice which has continued to distinguish Sthånakvås⁄ and Teråpanth⁄ ascetics from those of other flvetåmbara sects and which many westerners regard as characteristic of all Jains: the permanent wearing of a strip of cloth across the mouth, tied behind the ears, known as a muhpatt⁄, ‘mouth-shield’ (square in shape for the Sthånakvås⁄s, rather more narrow and elongated for the Teråpanth⁄s), which by minimising the destruction of air-bodies and tiny insects through the outflow or inflow of breath is an outward sign of the ascetic’s commitment to non-violence. There is no evidence to link the advocacy of this with Lon≥kå, as the Sthånakvås⁄s would contend.18 However, there are references in early and medieval texts to the wearing of the muhpatt⁄, and Lavaj⁄ clearly saw himself as reviving an ancient custom which the growing indiscipline of the corrupt world age had caused to fall into abeyance. The disciple Gautama is mentioned in the ‘Exposition of Explanations’ and the ‘Sutra of Fruition’ as having a muhpatt⁄,19 while another flvetåmbara scripture presents it as a necessary part of a monk’s equipment and describes the appropriate means of cleaning it (UttS 26.23-7). Early medieval writers such as Haribhadra (LV p. 337) also mention the muhpatt⁄ and one of the chroniclers of the Kharatara Gaccha describes how the leprosy contracted by the canonical commentator Abhayadeva S¨ri led to his nose falling off so that he was unable to tie on his muhpatt⁄ properly (KhGPS p. 45). As reference to the muhpatt⁄ is so ubiquitous and as early western travellers mention it as one of the most striking features of the Jain ascetics they encountered,20 it is difficult to see what was controversial about Lavaj⁄’s advocacy of it.
