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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
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Once obtained, the monk was expected to handle the pot very carefully. Breaking it,285 or expanding the mouth of the pot (?), having more than three tundiyas, binding it improperly, giving it only one or more than three ties (bandha), using a pot with many ties for a period exceeding one and a half months; 286 using unfit ones or unstable ones; discolouring the coloured pot and vice versa; polishing it with oil, ghee, butter or fat; besmearing it with powders and paints; washing it either with hot or cold water so as to give it a new appearance, or with the intention of removing foul smell; drying the pot on a place full of living begins and often asking for a pot in a congregation of people by (suddenly) rising up,287 all these were taken as faults and the monk had to undergo a punishment for these.288
No exchange of the begging bowl was allowed without the previous sanction of the gani for it.289 But a monk was expected to give a bowl to novices—male or female, or to an old monk or nun who were unable (asakka) to procure it for themselves.290 Not only exchange, but along with it even buying and borrowing of pot, or making somebody else to do so for the sake of the monk, or accepting such a pot for the obtaining of which these activities are done, all these were deemed transgressions of monastic rules.291 No transactions regarding the pot with a heretic or a householder were allowed.292 Cleaning or using the alms bowl purely for enhancing personal beauty was disallowed.293 Size of the Pot (pāya or bhāyaṇa) :
The medium size (majjhima pamāņa) of the pot was such as to make it fit in a thread three vihatthis and four angulas in length, held in a squarish position (samacaürarsa). Anything which was more or less in size than this was taken to be the utkrsta or the jaghanya respectively.294 Qualities of an Ideal Pot:
Such pots as were (perfectly) round (vatta), of symmetrical build (samacaüransa), of permanent ownership of the monk (thāvara: comm. ‘na parakiyoparaskaravad yācitaṁ katipayadinasthāyi'), and of polish
285. Nis. 2, 25-26. 286. Ibid., 1, 41-45. 287. Ibid., 14, 8-45. 288. See Appendix 1. 289. Nis. 14, 5-7; 14, 1-4; 16, 25-29. 290. Ibid., 14, 7. 291. Ibid., 14, 1-4. 292. Ibid., 1, 39. 293. Ibid., 15, 153-54.
294. Ogha-N., 680-83. BULL. DCRI.----34
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