Jain Journal 1997 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 14

HOERNLE: THE HISTORY OF GOSĀLA MANKHALIPUTTA
substitutes of drinks :* the former include what is excreted by the cow, what is soiled by the hand (e.g., the water in a potter's vessel), what is heated by the sun, and what drops from a rock. By the latter is understood when one clutches a dish or a bottle or a pot or a jar which is cool or wet with water, but does not drink from it; or when one squeezes or presses with one's mouth a mango or a hog-plum or a jujube fruit or a tinduka fruit when it is tender or uncooked, but does not drink of its juice; or when one squeezes or presses with one's mouth kalaya or mudga or maṣa or shimbali beans when they are tender or uncooked, but does not drink of their juice, or when one eats pure food for six months, lying successively, for two months at a time, on the bare earth, on wooden planks and on darbha-grass, then there appear to him, on the last night of the six months, the two devas Punnabhadda and Māņibhadda, and clutch his limbs with cool and wet hands; then he who submits to their caresses furthers the work of serpents, but who does not submit to them, in his body arises a fire which consumes his body; and thus he attains death and perfection; this is the pure drink (p. 1257). At that time a layman of the Ajiviya sect, called Ayampula, who lived in Savatthi, happened to go to visit Mankhaliputta, to put a question to him on the nature of the Hallä insect. On approaching the potter's shop and observing Mankhaliputta in his delirious state, he felt ashamed and wanted quietly to retire; but the Theras who were about Mankhaliputta called to him to stay and, explaining to him the above-mentioned new points of doctrine, invited him to enter and put his question to Mankhaliputta (p. 1259b) In the meanwhile they secretly signed to the latter to throw away the mango which he was holding in his hand. Ayampula then entered and put his question. Mankhaliputta replied: "this which you see is not a mango, but merely the skin of a mango; you want to know what the Halla insect is like; it is like the root of the bamboo; play the lute, brother, play the lute!" With this reply, Ayampula whose suspicions had been lulled by the previous explanations of the Theras, contentedly retired (p. 1261a). Then feeling certain of his death, Mankhaliputta instructed his Theras to bury him after his death with every mark of honour and to proclaim publicly that with him the last Titthankara had passed away (p. 1262a). But at the last moment his assurance
Text chattāri pāṇagāim chattāri apānagaim. The commentary explains pāṇagaim by jalavisheṣä, vratiyogyaḥ, i.e. 'kinds of water that are fit (to be drunk) by ascetics:' and apānagaim by panaka-sadṛishāni shitalatvena dāhopashamahetavah, i.e., objects that resemble water because, on account of their coolness, they serve to assuage (internal) heat.' The words might be more literally translated: 'four things which may be drunk, and four things which (though they may be touched) may not be drunk.'
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