Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 990

VII, 1, 3.
THE KATHINA CEREMONIES.
149
'I prescribe, O Bhikkhus, that the Kathina ceremony shall be performed by Bhikkhus when
The Kahina, literally 'hard,' is the stock of cotton cloth provided by the faithful to be made up into robes for the use of the Samgha during the ensuing year. The whole of this cotton cloth must be dyed, sewn together, and made into robes, and then formally declared to be (not only common property, Samghika, but) available for immediate distribution-all on one and the same day. The object of this was that the Samgha, or at least a quorum of the Samgha, being able to be present throughout, there would be less chance of any mistake by which what was intended equally for all might come to be unequally divided among a few. All the Brethren who have kept their Vassa within the limits of the district within which the particular Samgha lives (and therefore technically called an âvâsa, 'residence'), and who have taken part in the Pavâranâ, are entitled to share in the distribution.
(Buddhaghosa says, 'Ettha kathinatthâram ke labhanti ke na labhanti. Ganavasena tâva pakkhima-kofiyâ pañka ganâ (for at least five must be present to make a Pavâranâ legal, Mahâvagga IX, 4, 1) .. vutthavassavasena purimikâya vassam upagantvâ pathama-pavâranâya pavâritâ labhanti.')
There can of course be no kathin-atthâra if there is no kathina; and, under certain restrictions laid down in the Nissaggiya Pâkittiya Rules, laymen were allowed to give robes for the special use of a particular Bhikkhu. If, however, a layman was desirous of giving the much more meritorious gift of a Kathina to the whole community, then he is to present the cloth in the early morning to a properly constituted meeting of the Samgha, and the Kathina ceremony has to be gone through. All the Brethren living within the boundary have to be present, and to take part in the work of making the cotton cloth up into robes; and if there is any danger of the work not being concluded before the day is over, even the most senior Bhikkhus, or the most revered for their learning or insight, must lend a hand. Then follows the distribution so far only as is set forth in the next section (§ 4) and in the note to it.
Now it would often happen that, at the end of the rainy season of Vassa, the last year's robes of some of the Bhikkhus would be worn out. And yet no laymen would come forward to give a Kathina until some time after the Vassa residence had closed.
But
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