Mahavagga, Khandaka 1, Chapter 71

1. At that time the Bhikkhus conferred the pabbajjā ordination on a person whose hands were cut off, on a person whose feet were cut off, whose hands and feet were cut off, whose ears were cut off, whose nose was cut off, whose ears and nose were cut off, whose fingers were cut off, whose thumbs were cut off, whose tendons (of the feet) were cut, who had hands like a snake's hood^[1], who was a hump-back, or a dwarf, or a person that had a goitre, that had been branded, that had been scourged, on a proclaimed robber, on a person that had elephantiasis, that was afflicted with bad illness, that gave offence (by any deformity) to those who saw him, on a one-eyed person, on a person with a crooked limb, on a lame person, on a person that was paralysed on one side, on a cripple^[2], on a person weak from age, on a blind man, on a dumb man, on a deaf man, on a blind and dumb man, on a blind and deaf man, on a deaf and dumb man, on a blind, deaf and dumb man.

They told this thing to the Blessed One.

“Let no person, O Bhikkhus, whose hands are cut off, receive the pabbajjā ordination. Let no person whose feet are cut off, receive the pabbajjā ordination, &c. (each of the above cases being here repeated). He who confers the pabbajjā ordination (on such persons), is guilty of a dukkaṭa offence.”

Here end the thirty-two cases in which pabbajjā. is forbidden.

End of the ninth Bhāṇavāra.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

'Whose fingers are grown together, like bats' wings' (Buddhaghosa).

[2]:

Buddhaghosa (Berlin MS.) explains 'chinniriyāpatha' by 'pidhasappi.' We ought to read, no doubt, pīṭhasappī, which is Sanskrit pīṭhasarpin, a cripple that is moved on in a rolling chair.