Vinaya (3): The Cullavagga
by T. W. Rhys Davids | 1881 | 137,074 words
The Cullavagga (part of the Vinaya collection) includes accounts of the First and Second Buddhist Councils as well as the establishment of the community of Buddhist nuns. The Cullavagga also elaborates on the etiquette and duties of Bhikkhus....
Cullavagga, Khandaka 5, Chapter 10
1. Now at that time the Bhikkhus went on their round for alms, carrying water jugs made out of gourds[1], or water-pots[2]. People murmured, were shocked, and indignant, saying, 'As the Titthiyas do.'
They told this matter to the Blessed One.
'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to go on your rounds for alms with water jugs, or pots. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkaṭa.'
2. Now at that time a certain Bhikkhu, who had taken upon himself a vow to wear or use nothing except what he could procure from dust-heaps or cemeteries, went on his rounds for alms carrying a bowl made out of a skull. A certain woman saw him, and was afraid, and made an outcry[3], saying, 'O horror! This is surely a devil!'
People murmured, were shocked, and indignant, saying, 'How can the Sakyaputtiya Samaṇas carry about bowls made out of skulls, as the devil-worshippers[4] do?'
They told this matter to the Blessed One.
'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to use bowls made out of skulls. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkaṭa. And you are not, O Bhikkhus, to take a vow to wear or to use nothing except what you procure from dust-heaps or cemeteries. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkaṭa.'
3. Now at that time the Bhikkhus carried out odd bits, and bones, and dirty water[5] in their bowls.
People murmured, were shocked, and were indignant, saying, 'The very vessel out of which these Sakyaputtiya Samaṇas eat, that they use as a waste-tub!'
They told this matter to the Blessed One.
'You are not, O Bhikkhus, to carry out odd bits, and bones, and dirty water in your bowls. Whosoever does so, shall be guilty of a dukkaṭa. I allow you, O Bhikkhus, the use of a waste-tub[6].'
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
Tumba-kaṭāhan ti lāpu-kaṭāhaṃ vuccati (B.). Tumba is gourd, according to Böhtlingk-Roth. See Khuddha Sikkhā V. 11.
[2]:
Ghaṭi-kaṭāhan ti ghaṭi-kapālaṃ (B.). The whole section is repeated in the text of each kind of vessel.
[3]:
Vissaraṃ akāsi, on the use of which idiom see the passages quoted below, Cullavagga VIII, 1, 1.
[4]:
Pisācillikā. See below, 27, 5, and Mahāvagga III, 12, 3.
[5]:
This list recurs in the Old Commentary on the 10th Pācittiya in the Bhikkhunī-vibhaṅga. As an explanation of vighāsa, Buddhaghosa says here ucchittodakan ti mukha-vikkhālanodakaṃ.
[6]:
Paṭiggaho. Slop-basin, waste-tub, 'receptacle' for odd bits. It is so used below at VIII, 4, 4.