SreRika
1 śreṇika , adj. ( cf. a-śreṇika ), a (relatively) complimentary 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.