Luxurious Lodgings

Originally the ku.ti or lodging may not have been much more than a hut with a plaster or earthen floor. Rules were formulated as to their size and luxury. For example, the sixth Sa"nghaadisesa Rule — remember that this is the second most serious category of rules requiring a formal meeting of the Community — arose when bhikkhus were having extravagant huts built for themselves. They had no sponsors and were therefore begging materials from lay people, "saying, again and again, Give me this, give me that..." The people became burdened by all this begging and when they saw the bhikkhus, any bhikkhus, coming they would run away and hide.

"Building a plastered hut — or having it built — without a sponsor, destined for ones own use, without having obtained the Communitys approval, is a [serious offence entailing meetings of the Sangha.] Building a plastered hut — or having it built — without a sponsor, destined for ones own use, exceeding the standard measurements, is also a [serious offence entailing meetings of the Sangha.]

(Summary Sa"ngh. 6; BMC p.128)

The Commentary explains that it must be quite a permanent structure to come under this ruling. Depending on how long one understands the ancient measure of the sugata span to be, the ku.ti or hut should not be more than approximately 3 by 1.75 metres. (See BMC p.125) The commentarial tradition would put it three times this size.