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HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM IN INDIA
Dear Sir,354 Your letter dated 10-1-28 duly at hand. I have carefully gone over the passage of the Achārānga Sūtra II 1.10.6 which refers to the eating of 'meat' and 'fish' by Jaina monks or nuns. The result at which I arrived forms the subject of this letter.
Let me begin with the origin of the controversy in about AD 1900. In my translation of the Achārānga Sūtra (S.B.E., vol. XXII, Oxford, 1884) I have rendered in the passage under consideration, mamsa and maccha by 'meat and 'fish'; for, such is the original [237] or primary meaning (mukhyārtha) of māmsa and matsya. The Jainas took offence at this rendering and complained about it to Professor Max Müller, the editor of the S.B.E. Series.
In order to justify my translation, I tried to make it probable that in ancient times the prohibition of animal food may not have been so rigorous as it notoriously was in more modern times. But my suggestion has not been accepted, and Mr Khimji Hirji Kayani communicated to me the following explanation of the passage in question by the high priest of the Jain community of Bombay:
'A monk or a nun on a begging tour is prohibited from receiving conserve of fruits containing a large portion of bark or an exterior covering of a fruit, and if inadvertently received then the monk or nun should bury underground the remaining portion of such conserve which cannot be eaten,' etc. A similar explanation was given to me by several yatis on my visit to India in the cold season of 1913–14. I duly took notice of their interpretation which I promised to publish when a second edition of my translation of the Achārānga Sūtra should be issued, but I refrained from further discussing or disputing the point, and there the matter rested.
Now the point to be decided is whether māmsa and matsya can be proved to have the meaning conserve of fruits assigned to them by the orthodox interpreters of the
354 See also the article by munis Nemivijaya and Anandasāgara 2007: 12ff.
with a Sanskrit letter by Jacobi on p. 20f. and their reply to Jacobi on p. 22f. On my request for a copy of this letter of Jacobi Muni Sīlacandravijaya answered me that the letter could not be found (WB).
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