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348
KULLAVAGGA.
X, 16, 2.
They told this matter to the Blessed One.
I allow, O Bhikkhus, the use of a thigh-cloth (a cloth to reach nearly down to the knee ').'
The thigh-cloth slipped down. They told this matter to the Blessed One. *I allow it, О Bhikkhus, to be fastened by a thread to be tied round the thigh.'
The thread broke. They told this matter to the Blessed One. 'I allow, O Bhikkhus, a loin-cloth, and a string going round the hips (to keep it up).'
Now at that time the Khabbaggiya Bhikkhunis used to wear the hip-string always. The people murmured, &c., saying : ‘Like the women who still enjoy the pleasures of the world!' They told this matter to the Blessed One.
'A Bhikkhunt is not, O Bhikkhus, to wear a hipstring for constant use 3. I allow its use to one who is in her courses.'
i Äni-kolakan. Buddhaghosa has no note on this. Ani must be here that part of the leg immediately above the knee, the front of the thigh. Compare Böhtlingk-Roth s. v. No. 2.
Samvelliyam kati-suttakam. The samvelliyam is the ordinary undress as worn for the sake of decency, even now, by a labourer working in muddy paddy fields, or at any severe task. It is a wedge-shaped strip of cotton cloth about a foot and a half long, about five inches wide at one end, and tapering down to one inch in width at the other. The broad end is fixed on to a string going round the waist (kati-suttakam), and hangs down, when put on, in front of the legs. When worn under other clothes, it remains so; but when the other clothes are taken off for work the narrow end is passed under the body between the legs, and twisted round the hip-string behind (at the small of the back) so as to keep it fast. Its use is forbidden to Bhikkhus at V, 29, 5, where Buddhaghosa says, "Such as wrestlers and labourers wear.'
Its use is also forbidden to Bhikkhus (above, Kullavagga V, 2, 1).
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