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...

Allowance for cut-up cloth

Kd.8.12.1 Then the Lord, having stayed in Rājagaha for as long as he found suitable, set out on tour for Dakkhiṇāgiri.[1] The Lord saw the field of Magadha,[2] laid BD.4.408 out in strips,[3] laid out in lines,[4] laid out in embankments,[5] laid out in squares,[6] and seeing this, he addressed the venerable Ānanda, saying:

“Now, do you Ānanda, see the field of Magadha laid out in strips … laid out in squares?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“Are you able, Ānanda, to provide[7] robes like this for the monks?”

“I am able, Lord.”

Then the Lord, having stayed at Dakkhiṇāgiri for as long as he found suitable, went back again to Rājagaha. Then the venerable Ānanda, having provided robes for several monks, approached the Lord; having approached he spoke thus to the Lord:

“Lord, let the Lord see the robes provided by me.”

Kd.8.12.2 Then the Lord, on that occasion, having given reasoned talk, addressed the monks, saying:

“Monks, clever is Ānanda; monks, of great intelligence is Ānanda, inasmuch as he can understand in detail the meaning of that which was spoken of by me in brief, and can make a cross-seam[8] and can make a short cross-seam[9] and can make a circular seam[10] and can make a short circular seam[11] and can BD.4.409 make a central piece[12] and can make side pieces[13] and can make a neck-piece[14] and can make a knee-piece[15] and can make an elbow-piece;[16] and what is cut up must be roughly darned together,[17] suitable for recluses and not coveted by opponents. I allow you, monks, an outer cloak that is cut up, an upper robe that is cut up, an inner robe that is cut up.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Dictionary of Pali Proper Names says “a janapada (district) in India, the capital of which was Ujjeni … Dakkhiṇāgiri lay to the south of Rājagaha, beyond the hills that surrounded the city—hence its name”. See MN-a.iii.429, Snp-a.1.136, SN-a.i.242, SN-a.ii.176.

[2]:

Magadhakhetta. See Dictionary of Pali Proper Names for suggestion that this was “probably an extensive rice-field which at once caught the eye on account of its terraces,” and size, one might add; see Ja.iii.293.

[3]:

accibandha, as Siamese edition. Sinhalese edition reads accibaddha, Vin-a.1127 acchibaddha. Acci is usually a “ray”, but does not mean that here, see Vinaya Texts ii.207, n.3. Pali-English Dictionary says “we should prefer the conjecture acchibaddha, ‘in the shape of cubes or dice’, i.e. with square fields”. Vin-a.1127 says acchibaddhan ti caturassakedārakabaddhaṃ, which means “divided (or set out) in square-shaped irrigated fields”. Bandha is much more “set out, placed, formed, arranged, united or put together” than the “divided” of Vinaya Texts ii.207. The analogy is that the pieces of a monk’s robe are to be arranged or put together (not “divided”) like the parts of the field.

[4]:

pāḷibandha. Vin-a.1127 says “arranged (or linked, baddha) by boundaries that are long in length and breadth”.

[5]:

mariyādabandha; perhaps terraces. The knowledge of terraced irrigation is very old. Vinaya Texts ii.208 gives (divided) “by outside boundaries (or ridges)”. Vin-a.1127 says mariyādabaddha is so called because of a short mariyāda at intervals.

[6]:

siṅgātakabandha. Vin-a.1127 says that this is having pierced an embankment, mariyāda, with an embankment at the place where they meet, gataṭṭhānena; the meaning is, the form of a square, catukkasaṇṭhāna.

[7]:

saṃvidahituṃ. Vin-a.1127 gives dātuṃ; Vinaya Texts ii.208, n.4, quoting Buddhaghosa, reads kātuṃ.

[8]:

kusi. This and the following words recur at Kd.16.21.3.

[9]:

aḍḍhakusi. Critical Pali Dictionary gives “an intermediate cross-seam” following Vinaya Texts ii.209.

[10]:

maṇḍala. Vin-a.1127 says maṇḍalan ti pañcakhaṇḍikacīvarassa ekekasmiṃ khaṇḍe mahāmaṇḍalaṃ, a maṇḍala means there is a large maṇḍala (seam) to each piece of a robe of five pieces. Cf. above, BD.4.356, n.4.

[11]:

aḍḍhamaṇḍalan ti khuddakamaṇḍalaṃ, Vin-a.1127.

[12]:

vivaṭṭan ti maṇḍalañ ca aḍḍhamaṇḍalañ ca ekato katvā sibbitaṃ majjhima-khaṇḍaṃ, the middle piece is sewn putting together the circular seam and the short circular seam, Vin-a.1127.

[13]:

anuvivaṭṭa. Vin-a.1127 says tassa ubhosu passesu dve khaṇḍāni … athavā vivaṭṭassa ekapassato dvinnaṃ ekapassato tiṇṇaṃ pi catunnaṃ pi khaṇḍānaṃ etaṃ nāmaṃ, this is the name of the two or four pieces at each side of the vivaṭṭa, the central piece”. Critical Pali Dictionary adds another explanation: ubhosu passesu ekapassato dvinnaṃ ekapassato dvinnan ti catunnaṃ pi khaṇḍānaṃ nāmaṃ, with regard to both sides, if there are two at one side, two at the other side, it is called ‘of four pieces’. Critical Pali Dictionary says of anuvivaṭṭa that “according to Sp.designation of the (two or) four side-pieces of cloth in a monk’s cowl (cīvara), (one or) two on each side of the two central pieces (vivaṭṭa, i.e. maṇḍala and aḍḍhamaṇḍala)”. One must understand that the central piece, vivaṭṭa, comes whole, or in two pieces at the back, and that on each side are the two side-pieces, anuvivaṭṭa, and that the pieces are all joined together by the maṇḍala and aḍḍhamaṇḍala. On these last see above, BD.4.408, n.8, BD.4.408, n.9.

[14]:

gīveyyakan ti gīvaveṭhanaṭṭhāne daḷhīkaraṇatthaṃ aññaṃ suttasaṃsibbitaṃ āgantukapaṭaṃ, a gīveyyaka means an added (piece of) cloth sewn together with another thread for the sake of strengthening in the place going round the neck, Vin-a.1127.

[15]:

jaṅgheyyakan ti jaṅghapāpuṇaṭṭhāne tath’eva saṃsibbitaṃ paṭam, it means a piece of cloth sewn together just in the place to which-the knee reaches, Vin-a.1127.

[16]:

bāhantan ti anuvivaṭṭānaṃ bahi ekekaṃ khaṇḍaṃ. iti pañcakhaṇḍikacīvaren’ etaṃ vicāritan ti, “a bāhanta means a piece outside each of the sidepieces. It is thought of thus in regard to the robe of five pieces”, so Vin-a.1127, to which it adds, bāhantan ti suppamāṇacīvaraṃ pārupantena saṃharitvā bāhāya upari ṭhapitā ubho antā bahimukhā tiṭṭhanti tesam tesaṃ nāmaṃ, a bāhanta means, if one puts on a robe of good measure, folding it together and holding up the arms, both ends stand outside the face; it is the name of these (ends).

[17]:

Text reads sattalūkha; Sinhalese and Siamese editions satthalūkha, rough knife, possibly referring to it as the instrument with which monks cut up the robes; while Vinaya Texts ii.209, on analogy of suttalūkha in Kd.8.21.1 below, adopts “that reading here” (see Vinaya Texts ii.209, n.10), and translates “roughly sewn together”.

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