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4
Ram Prakash Poddar
The Mülacara enumerates 16 faults of the giver, 16 faults of the reçeiver in obtaining food, and 10 in the act of receiving. It does not mention the fault in using food by name but substitutes instead other four faults which may be regarded as elaborations of the same.
The 16 faults of the giver are :
1/ Performing the mean acts of injuring the six categories of living beings purposely for the monk (adhakàmmuddesiya),
2/ Increasing the quantity of food to be cooked on seeing the monk
(ajjhovajjha), • 3 mixing particles of impure food with the pure one (pūdi),
41 serving the monks along with the heretics (missa), 5/ reserving food for the monk (thavida),
61 offering the remains of a sacrifice (bali), : 7) allowing the interval between decision to offer and actual offering
(pahuda), 8/ shifting a curtain or cleaning a pot for offering food (pādukkāra), 9/ buying food for monk (kida), 10/ borrowing food articles for monk (pāmicca), 11/ exchanging one kind of food with another for the monk (pariyatta), 12/ bringing food from a distance (abhihada), 13/ breaking a seal for offering food (ubbhinna), . 14) scaling a ladder to bring food to offer (malaroha), 15/ offering with fear (acchijja), and 16/ giving without partner's permission (anişatta).
It is necessay to point out the few cases of disagreement between this list and the one provided in the Uttarajjhyaņa Dipika in course of explaining giver's fault of the sutra.
The Dipikā separates the mean acts of injuring the living beings (odhakomma or adhaḥ karmal) from preparing food with the monk in view and so does the commentary of Mūlacara. But in this case the list exeeeds the stated number of sixteen. There is nothing in the text to warrant that the said act of injuring the living beings has to kept out of the list. Moreover injuring living beings becomes a fault only when it is commited expressly for the monk, otherwise it is not tenable since all acts of cooking food inevitably involve injury to living beings. 1. Proper Sanskrit would be yathākāmya Ed.
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