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Ram Prakash Poddar
The following 10 are the faults in the act of receiving : 1) doubt in purity of food (saṁkida), 2/ food being served with a laddle already besmeared with ghee or
oil (makkhida), 3/ food being placed on animate being (nikkhida), . 4. animate food being covered with inainimate matter or vice versa
(pihida), 5/ snatching pots in haste before giving (samvavaharana), 6/ receiving food from an unworthy giver (dayaga), 71 receiving pure and impure food mixed together (ummissa), 8/ food being half cooked (apariņada), 9/ food being besmeared with undesirable elements such as cold water
etc. (litta), and 10/ food being spilt or scattered (choțida),
This list also almost agrees with the one given in Uttarajjhayana Dipika in course of explaining the faults of receiving.
The Mülacāra adds the following four faults : 1/ Mixing food materials to relish the same (samjo yana), 2/ gluttony (adimatta), 3/ greed (angāra) and 4/ aversion (dhūma).
These four have been classed under the faults of using food, in the Uttarajjhayana Dipika.
Besides these the Mülacara mentions one fault of transgressing the reasons for taking or not taking food. The 'reasons' are adapted verbatism from the Uttarajjha yana. By way of peroration the Mülacara defines the pure food and nams the dirts that pollute and render it unacceptable for the monks.
One is struck with the systematic treatment of the subject in the Mülacara. The author has marshalled, explained and elaborated all the scattered data about a monk's begging food. He has taken pains to classify the faults and then to enumerate the various possible divisions and subdivisions. At places, one feels, the predilection for augmenting the subdivisions is too strong to abide by strictly logical considerations; in some cases the sub-divisions are not distinct and mutually exclusive.
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