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S. B. DEO from such worldly bickerings. (Pindanijutti, 623-25).
Another instance can be had in the formation of the rule which forbids a monk to accept food from the daughter of his maternal uncle. On the face of it one might wonder why this rule was enforced. But the commentator rightly points out that the violation of this rule might lead to the affinity between the monk and the cousin sister which may irritate the husband of the lady. The rule becomes significant when we take into consideration the fact that the daughter of the maternal uncle often married her cousin brother. In view of this, the husband of the lady might suspect intimacy between the monk-brother and his wife which might also lead to trouble for all. Here is, therefore, an excellent example of the formulation of monastic rules in consonance with social practices. It would thus be clear that though purity -- mental and physical — was at the basis of monastic rules, other factors also were taken due cognisance of.
Such illustrations can be had even in other facets of monastic life. Take for instance the rules regarding study. The Uttarājjhayana (XXVI, 12) clearly states that the first and the fourth porisi of the day should be utilized for study by the monk. Yet in abnormal circumstances study was not to be done. For instance, phenomena like the fall of meteors (ukkāvāya), thunder of supernatural beings in the sky (nigghate), the appearance of goblins in the sky (jakkhālitte), eclipses of the moon and the sun (candovarāte, surovarāte) -- all of these being occasions of illomen in the mind of the people at large, were unfit for study. Besides this, some occasions which involved political tension like the death of a king or a prominent person (rāyavugghahe) also were deemed unfit for study. (Thānanga. p. 476b; Āyār. II, 1, 3, 9: pp. 96-97; Nis. XIX, 8-12). The considerations behind these were both psychological and political, if one may be allowed to infer. Psychological in the sense that such times are abnormal and are associated with excitement and tension which are not conducive to concentration in study. Secondly, if people see monks
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