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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
169 The Way of Begging :
Normally, he was to beg at all houses irrespective of the status of the occupants. Yet, he was advised to prefer noble families in order to get pure food.170
Under special vows which the monk undertook, he begged in peculiar ways. Besides restricting his choice to a particular type of food, or to a peculiar donor, or to a special odd time 171 he went at different houses in the following ways:
(a) He went begging food successively at four houses forming the corners of an imaginary box (peļā),
or (b) he did so, so that the houses begged at, formed the shape of a half-cut box (ardhapețā),
or (c) he went in a zigzag way (gomūtrikā),
or (d) to houses at great distances from one another so that his begging resembled the unregulated flying of a gnat (patangavīthika),
or (e) he visited the houses in a spiral line like the turn of a conch (sambūkāvarta), either from the centre outwards, or towards the centre,
or (f) he went straight on and then returned a-begging (āyatamgatvā-pratyāgata).172
The road he chose was to be devoid of mud, living beings, wild animals, pits, uneven ditches, embers, ash, pillars, bridges and cowdung.173 Houses of courtesans, scenes of quarrels and fights, playgrounds, the lodgings of officers and kings were to be avoided at all cost.174 So also he was not allowed to visit the houses of his relatives before undertaking the begging tour with a view to acquire specially prepared dishes.175 If a house was closed, then he was not to open or peep through the doors or crevices of bath-rooms.176 He was not to transgress the limits set up by the householder to the monk's entry (aïbhūmi), and within that limit also he was not to jump over or drive aside a goat or a child.177 He was not to hurry up
170. Ibid. II, 1, 2 (p. 92); Dév. 5, i. 14. 171. Uttar. 26, 32; 30, 20-21. 172. Ibid, 30, 19; Thān. 365b. 173. Dśv. 5, i, 3-7; Acār. II, 1, 5, 2-4 (pp. 99-101). 174. Dáv. 5, i, 9, 12, 16. 175. Acär. II, 1, 4, 4 (p. 98). 176. Ibid. II, 1, 6, 2 (p. 103); Dśv. 5, i, 22-25.
177. Ibid. 5, i, 22-25. BULL. DCRI.-22
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