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HISTORY OF VEGETARIANISM IN INDIA
hand. In discussing a Vārttika ad Pāṇini (III, 3, 9) Patañjali illustrates the meaning of nāntarīyakatva by the following example: kaścit māmsārthī matsyān sa-sakalān sa-kaņsakān āharati nāntarīyakatvāt. sa yāvad ādeyam tāvad ādāya sakalakantakāny utsrjati. evam ihậpi', etc. (The same passage is repeated verbatim in the Mahābhāşya ad IV. 1, 92).
Vācaspatimiśra in commenting on Nyāyasūtra IV 1, 54 says: 'tasmān māmsārthīva kantakān uddhrtya māmsam aśnann ānartham kaņțaka-janyam āpnotīty evam prajñāvān duḥkham uddhrtyendriyādi-sādhanam sukham moksyate. Patañjali and Vācaspatimiśra are separated by nine centuries: during all this time (and probably much longer) the standard example of an object containing the substance which is wanted in intimate connection (nāntarīyaka) with much that must be rejected, was 'fish' of which the flesh may be eaten, but the scales and bones must be taken out. By being generally understood in this way, and having become proverbial, as it were, the expression 'fish with many bones' came to be properly used, I assume, to denote metaphorically any substance similarly constituted. In this metaphorical sense, I believe, bahu-atthiyeņa mamseņa vā maccheņa vā bahukanthaena has been used in the passage of Achārānga Sūtra under consideration. A close examination of that passage is very much in favour of my supposition. It runs thus:
se bhikkhū vā jāva samāṇe siyā ņam paro bahu-atthieņa mamsena macchena vā bahu-kanthaeņa uvanimantejjā Tāusanto samaņā abhikaňkhasi bahu-atthiyam mamsam padigāhettae | etappagāram nighosam soccā [239] nisamma se puvvām-eva āloejjā lāuso ti vā bhaiņi ti vā no khalu kappai me bahu-atthiyam massam padigāhettae | abhikaňkhasi me dāum jāvatiyam tāvatiyam poggalam dalayāhi, mā atļhiyāim 1 etc. The layman asks the monk whether he will accept 'meat with many bones'. Now if the alms-giver had actually offered meat, the answer of the monk would of a certainty have been: No, I am no flesh-eater. Instead of this refusal he says: 'It is against our rules to accept "meat with many bones": "if you desire to make me a gift, give me as much of the substance as you like, but not the bones." It is worthy of remark that the monk makes use of the (popular) phrase 'meat with many bones' when declining
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