[Buddha-l] Nakedness

[Richard Hayes]

On Thursday 29 March 2007 01:26, Joy Vriens wrote:

> Why would the neighbours complain? As Biardeau points out the first
> information we have about ancient Buddhism comes centuries after the
> events, is written in Pali (not the Buddha's dialect) and in a different
> part from the events. Were the Ceylanese at the times of the Pali canon
> more prudish than the people from Magadha? Weren't they used to seeing
> bhiksus (as Gautama's dharmasutras call sannyasins)? The people in Magadha
> must have been used to holy men being naked, so why all of a sudden the
> (semi-)nakedness became a problem, when those bhiksus became Buddhist
> bhiksus?

One suspects this story is meant to be an indirect  polemic against Digambara 
Jains. 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico