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536
The Unknown Pilgrims
- one may not lodge in a house situated in the middle of the bazar
area:19
• in a house located at the entrance to a crowded and noisy lane; or near the crossroads of several such lanes;
- in a house where there is a shop:20
- in a room without a door, unless it is feasible to arrange a curtain;21
- also to be avoided are rooms adorned with mural paintings;22
- all dwellings where there is a continuous to-ing and fro-ing day and night, places containing many passages and a mixed population, such as shelters for pilgrims, inns; equally to be shunned are rooms open to the four winds or giving upon a corridor or, again, a shelter constructed on a tree-trunk or open to the sky.23 The aim of all these directives is to protect the sādhvis.
The sayyā properly so-called, that is, the bed or couch, may be made of hard wood, dried grass, hay, peacock feathers or straw.24 In the upāśrayas the sādhvis sleep upon narrow bed-tables of wood,
19 Of the upáśrayas of today, certain ones, in Dilli for example, are right in the middle of a bazar. These upāśrayas are often very ancient and date back to an epoch when cities were less populous. They none the less provide, in accordance with the rules, a safe lodging, but it is true that their surroundings are noisy and thus scarcely favourable to concentration.
20 Cf. Brks I, 12.
21 Ibid., I, 14.
22 Ibid., I, 21; the themes painted may give rise to distractions or awaken memories.
23 Ibid., II, 11.
24 Cf. AS II, 2, 3, 18.
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