Carried Since the Earliest Monastic Rule

Jain monastic discipline has required some form of implement for clearing a resting place of insects since the earliest surviving codifications of mendicant conduct, and the rajoharan in its present forms continues that requirement rather than representing a later addition to practice. Its use is procedural rather than symbolic display: before sitting, kneeling or lying down, a mendicant sweeps the immediate spot with slow, deliberate strokes, a small and constantly repeated act that Jain teaching treats as no less important than the tradition's more dramatic renunciations, because non harm in Jainism is understood to be tested continuously in ordinary movement rather than only in exceptional moments.

Dundas's study of the Jains describes the rajoharan and the muhpatti together as the two implements that most concretely translate the doctrine of ahimsa into daily bodily practice, distinguishing Jain monasticism from traditions where non harm remains a stated principle without a corresponding physical routine built specifically to enact it at this scale. Because the implement is carried rather than worn, it travels with a mendicant on foot between towns during the long periods of wandering that traditional Jain monastic discipline still expects of its ordained members outside the rainy season retreat.