________________
222 INDIA. AS DESCRIBED IN BARLY TEXTS
as one-garment men (ekasāțakas), as they used to clothe themselves with one piece of cloth, and as shavelings (mundakas), as they shaved their heads clean as a mark of distinction from the Tāpasas who were all Jatilas (wearers of matted hair) and from the Brahmin householders who wore a crested look on their head. As distinguished from the tăpasas they lived a homeless life, without having a fixed residence save and except during the rainy season when they took shelter in deserted houses (suññāgāra), caves (gubā), rocky caverns (kandarā) and the like. Some of them went about naked and were known as acelakas or naggapabbajitas. Those whose garments consisted in antelope-skin were called cammasāļakas. The canonical Pali toxts introduce to us no less than 30 wandering teachers who were either leaders or members of various orders of Indian ascetics, the number of members of each varying from 300 to 3,000. Some of them were known by their nick-names, some by the names of the gottas they belonged to, some by their external signs and some by their religious practices. They were all contemporaries of the Buddha and so of Mahāvīra. Potthapāda 1, the rheumatic, had 300 followers; Bhaggavagotta 2, the wanderer, belonged to the
1 Potthapada Sutta, Digha, i. 4 Digha, iii, p. l.
