Life in Ancient India as Depicted in Jain Canons

SR No.: 011077
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jagdishchandra Jain
Publisher: New Book Company
Publication Year: 1947
Total Pages: 429
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 106

104
LIFE IN ANCIENT INDLA
the time of the wedding were decorated with creşts (mauda) werd were
go to the garden every day with his flower-basket (patthiya : pidaga) to gather flowers and sell them on the high-road of the town.9a Pupphachajizya, pupphapadalaga, pupphacangeri are mentioned as flower baskete 598
Various kinds of garlands (malla : dama) are mentioned which were made from grass, munja, reeds (vetta), madana flowers, peacock feathers (piñcha), cotton stalk, horns, conch-shells, bones, bhinda (Abelmoschus Esculentus), wood, leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds and green grass. The five-coloured garlands of vīrana grass were made in Mathurā and were worn at the time of cohabitation.224 Flower-crests (mauda) were also known.826 The doors were decorated with garlands and wreaths at the time of the wedding-ceremony and on other special occasions.
Mention is made of bathing-towels (ullaniya), tooth-sticks (dantavana), oily substances (abbhangana), fragrant unguents (uvvattana), baths (majjana), clothes (vattha), ointments (ulevana) flowers, ornaments, incense and mouth-perfume (muhavāsa).228
Perfuines and csscntial oils were prepared. The oils were prepared fiom atasi, kusumba and sarisava.227 Oil was also obtained from the mountain Maru. Sayapåga and sahassapaga were medicinal oils prepared by boiling them a hundred times or a thousand times with the concoction of some medicinal herbs. Other nourishing and exhilarating fragrant oils were known which gave relief to the body. The application of sandalwood paste was very common ; varicus kinds of scented water were known.228 Perfumes of sweet scents from Dardara and Malaya arc mentioned.220
Then there is mention of kottha, 230 tagara (Tabernaemontana Coronarea), ela (the bark of cinnamon), coya (cardamom), campå, damana, kurkuma, (saffron), candana (sardal-wood), usīra (thc fragrant root of the plant Andropogon Muricatus), maruā, jāli, jūhiya, malliya, nhānamallia, ketagi, pädalı, nemālıya, aguru (aloc), lavanga (clove), viisa (Gendarussa Vulgaris) and kappūra (camphor) as fragrant substance.231
Incense was burnt in the shrines, slecping chambers and in the cities. Dhūvakaducchuya and dhūvaghadi aie mentioned as incense pots.232
amphor and is 31, 319
312 Anta , 3. p 31 f. 233 Rāya sū 23, also cf. Ara, ců. II, p. 62. 234 Nisi cu 7, p. 464,
26 Das cũ. 2, P. 76. 226 Uvā. 1 237 Ava cū. II, 319
198 Ova Su 31, p 121 f The Droyāvadāna (XXVII, p. 403) refers to milk, saffron, camphor and various aromatic herbs to perfume the water.
329 Naya Sú 1, p 30 Also see Ramayana, II. 91 24.
280 Kota (kustha) or 'costus' has been mentioned in the Atharvaveda. It 19 said to have grown in the snowy mountains of the north and thence been taken to the people in the eastern art It still grows in the same region, i e, Kashmir as mentioned in the Atharvaveda (Dr. Motichand, 1 of the Indian Society of Oriental Art, VIII, 1940, p. 71)
101 Rāya Su 39, p 91.
983 Náyā 8,00 ; Raya. Su 100, also see Gurja Prasanna Majumdar's article on Toilet in the Indian Culture, 1, 1-4, p. 658 f.