śreṇika (15311)

śreṇika
Entry 15311, Page 536, Col. 2

(SreRika, SreRika<h>1)
1 śreṇika¦, adj. (cf. a-śreṇika), a (relatively) compli- mentary epithet of a wandering mendicant, always with parivrājakaḥ: ŚsP 615.12; 633.13; AsP 8.21; 9.10. But apparently not a Buddhist; his knowledge is ‘limited’, prādeśika, ŚsP 615.13, tho superior to that of the aśreṇika. Cf. Rahder, JAOS 70.126. One might guess that śreṇika meant ‘members of a guild or (non-Buddhist) order of monks’; but śreṇi is not a normal expression for a religious order. In AMg. seḍhi (= Skt. śreṇi) is used of a certain stage of religious advancement among the Jains, and a-seḍhi-gaya (= Skt. *a-śreṇi-gata) means one who has not yet attained that stage; see Ratnach. s.vv. Could aśreṇika equal AMg. aseḍhigaya, and śreṇika, its opposite, one who has attained that stage ? Two Jain terms used, and applied to Jain or other heterodox monks? This is only a guess, and prob. not likely.

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