A sadhvi is a Jain nun in the Svetambara tradition, bound by the same five great vows as a monk and living the same mendicant life.
The mendicant life
The sadhvi renounces home and possessions and takes the five great vows, of non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy and non-attachment, in their most rigorous form, and lives as a wandering mendicant, walking from place to place, begging her food, and keeping the strict discipline of the Jain ascetic, so her life is that of the renunciant in full, differing from the monk in standing rather than in the austerity of the practice. The Svetambara sadhvis wear the plain white cloth of their tradition, and their discipline of non-violence is exacting, extending to the smallest living things.
Numbers and standing
A notable feature of Jain monasticism is that the nuns substantially outnumber the monks, and have done so through much of its recorded history, so the sadhvis are the larger part of the ascetic community, a fact that distinguishes Jainism from many traditions in which male renunciants predominate. Entry is by renunciation and initiation into the order under an acharya. Within the Svetambara tradition the sadhvis carry the full mendicant life, and though the highest offices of the order remain generally held by men, the scale and rigour of the female ascetic community give the sadhvi a central place in the living practice of Jainism, and she is honoured among the monks in the salutation of the ascetics in the daily prayer.