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RELIGION
229 The Jaina Aupapātika Sūtra speaks of the Tāpasas as those religieux who adopted the Vānaprastha mode of life on the banks of the saored rivers typified by the Ganges. They were either fire-worshippers, family men or those who slept on the bare ground. They were either sacrificers, or performers of funeral rites, or owners of property. The water jugs and cooking pots were among their belongings. They followed different modes of bathing in the holy waters. Some of them used to blow conchshells, or were küladhumakas (winnow-beaters). Some of them killed deer for venison and skin, and some killed elephants to make food provision minimising the slaughter of life. Some went about holding a stick erect, or with the gaze fixed on a particular direction. They used the bark of a tree as their garment, and lived either on the seashore or near water at the foot of a tree, feeding on water, air, water-plants, roots, bulbs, barks, flowers, fruits and seeds. They rendered their body cooked as it were by the heat of the five kinds of fire and stiffened by the sprinkling of water 1.
The Sūtra mentions a class of recluses (pabbaiyā-samaņā) who were addicted to sensual pleasures, vulgar ways and vaunting, and were fond of singing and dancing .
1 Aupapatha Sutra, sec, 74
Ibrd, sec. 76
