Vinaya Pitaka (3): Khandhaka

by I. B. Horner | 2014 | 386,194 words | ISBN-13: 9781921842160

The English translation of the Khandhaka: the second book of the Pali Vinaya Pitaka, one of the three major ‘baskets’ of Therevada canonical literature. It is a collection of various narratives. The English translation of the Vinaya-pitaka (third part, khandhaka) contains many Pali original words, but transliterated using a system similar to the I...

Rejection of vehicles, etc.

Kd.5.9.4 Now at that time[1] the group of six monks went in a vehicle, and there was a bull in the middle yoked with cows and there was a cow in the middle yoked with bulls.[2] People … spread it about, saying: “As at the festival of the Ganges and Mahī[3]”. They told this matter to the Lord. He said:

Monks, you should not go in a vehicle. Whoever should (so) go, there is an offence of wrong-doing.[4]


Kd.5.10.1 Now at that time a certain monk, going through the Kosala country to Sāvatthī in order to see the Lord, became ill on the way. Then that monk, stepping aside from the road, sat down at the root of a certain tree. People, seeing that monk, spoke thus: “Where, honoured sir, will the master go?”

“I will go to Sāvatthī, sirs, in order to see the Lord.”

Kd.5.10.2 “Come, honoured sir, we will go along.”

“I am not able to, sirs, I am ill.”

“Come, honoured sir, get into a vehicle.”

“No, sirs, a vehicle is objected to by the Lord,” and being scrupulous, he did not get into a vehicle. Then that monk, having arrived at Sāvatthī, told this matter to the monks. The monks told this matter to the Lord. He said:

I allow, monks, a vehicle to one who is ill.

Kd.5.10.3 Then it occurred to these monks: “Now, should (the vehicle be) yoked with cows or yoked with bulls[5]? “They told this matter to the Lord. Vin.1.192 He said:

BD.4.256 “I allow you, monks, a handcart yoked with a bull.[6]


Now at that time a certain monk became extremely uncomfortable owing to the jolting of a vehicle. They told this matter to the Lord. He said:

I allow, monks, a palanquin,[7] a sedan-chair[8].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

From here to end of Kd.5.10.3 cf. Vin.2.276, which refers to the group of six nuns.

[2]:

As Vinaya Texts ii.25, n.2 remarks: “Buddhaghosa explains this passage in a different way.” He says, Vin-a.1085: itthiyuttenā ti dhenuyuttena (yoked with milch cows); purisantarenā ti purisasārathinā (with a male charioteer or driver); purisayuttenā ti goṇayuttena (yoked with oxen); itthantarenā ti itthīsārathinā (with a female charioteer).

[3]:

Gangā-mahiyāya. Vinaya Texts ii.25, n.3 says that by Mahī is probably meant “the well-known affluent of the Ganges”. Vin-a.1085 explains by Gangā-Mahikīḷikā (variant reading kīḷikāya).

[4]:

At Vin.4.339 (BD.3.403) any nun who was not ill fell into an offence of expiation if she went in a vehicle. “Vehicle” is defined e.g. at Vin.3.49, Vin.4.201.

[5]:

itthiyuttaṃ nu kho purisayuttaṃ nu kho.

[6]:

purisayuttaṃ hatthavaṭṭakaṃ. Vin-a.1085 says: here yoked with men (of a man or bulls or a bull, purisa), a woman (itthi) or a man (purisa) may be the driver. For a handcart rolls along whether itthiyo or purisā move it.

[7]:

sivikā. Vin-a.1085: piṭaka-sivikā, basket palanquin.

[8]:

pāṭaṅkī. Vin-a.1085: a woven cloth (? paṭapoṭṭalika, variant reading paṭalika) made up having hung it out on bamboos; perhaps what in South India is called a dooly.

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