Acaranga-sutra

by Hermann Jacobi | 1884 | 71,211 words | ISBN-10: 8120801237 | ISBN-13: 9788120801233

The English translation of the Acaranga Sutra, which represents the first the 12 Angas in Shevatambara Jainism. It is traditionally dated to the 5th-century BCE and consists of two parts containing lectures based on the teachings of Mahavira. Topics include: lifestyle of an ascetic: conduct, behavior, collecting alms, clothes, mode of walking and ...

Lecture 10

[Tenth lecture (uddesaya, uddeśaka): Discharging of feces and urine (uccārapāsavaṇasattikkao)]

A monk or a nun being pressed by nature should, in case they have not their own broom, beg for that of a fellow-ascetic. A monk or a nun, seeing that the ground is infected by eggs or living beings, &c., should not ease nature on such an unfit ground. But if the ground is free from eggs or living beings, &c., then they may ease nature on such a ground. (1)

A monk or a nun, knowing that the householder with regard to such a place for the sake of one or many, male or female fellow-ascetics, for the sake of many Śramaṇas or Brāhmaṇas whom he has well counted, kills living beings and commits various sins, should not ease nature on such a place or any other of the same sort, whether that place be appropriated by another person or not[1], &c. (see II, 1, 1, § 13). (2 and 3).

Now he should know this: If that place has not been appropriated by another person, &c., he may ease nature on such a place (after having well inspected and cleaned it). (4)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature on a ground which for their sake has been prepared or caused to be prepared (by the householder), or has been occupied by main force, or strewn with grass, or levelled, or smeared (with cowdung), or smoothed, or perfumed. (5)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature on a ground where the householders or their sons remove from outside to inside, or vice versa, bulbs, roots, &c. (see II, 2, 1, § 5). (6)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature on a pillar or bench or scaffold or loft or tower or roof. (7)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature on the bare ground or on wet ground or on dusty ground or on a rock or clay containing life, or on timber inhabited by worms or on anything containing life, as eggs, living beings, &c. (8)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in a place where the householders or their sons have. do, or will put[2] by bulbs, roots, &c. (9)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in a place where the householders or their sons have sown, sow, or will sow rice, beans, sesamum, pulse, or barley. (1o)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in a place where there are heaps of refuse, furrows, mud, stakes, sprigs, holes, caves, walls, even or uneven places[3]. (11)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in fireplaces, layers (or nests) of buffaloes, cattle, cocks, monkeys, quails, ducks[4], partridges, doves, or francoline partridges. (12)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in a place where suicide is committed, or where (those who desire to end their life) expose their body to vultures, or precipitate themselves from rocks or trees[5], or eat poison, or enter fire. (I 3)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in gardens, parks, woods, forests, temples, or wells. (14)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in towers, pathways, doors, or town gates. (15)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature where three or four roads meet, nor in courtyards or squares. (16)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature where charcoal or potash is produced, or the dead are burnt, or on the sarcophaguses or shrines of the dead. (17)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature at sacred places near rivers, marshes or ponds, or in a conduit. (18)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in fresh clay pits, fresh pasture grounds for cattle, in meadows or quarries. (19)

A monk or a nun should not ease nature in a field of shrubs, vegetables, or roots. (20) A monk or a nun should not ease nature in woods of Aśana[6], Śana[7], Dhātakī[8], Ketaki[9], Mango, Aśoka, Punnāga, or other such-like places which contain leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, or sprouts. (21)

A monk or a nun should take their own chamber-pot or that of somebody else, and going apart with it, they should ease nature in a secluded place where no people pass or see them, and which is free from eggs or living beings, &c.; then taking (the chamber-pot), they should go to a secluded spot, and leave the excrements there on a heap of ashes, &c. (see II, 1, 1, § 2).

This is the whole duty, &c.

Thus I say. (22)

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Purisaṃtarakaḍa, here translated svīkṛta. The text proceeds java bahiyā nihaḍaṃ vā, which I do not know how to apply to the object in question. As § 3 differs from § 2 only in giving p. 181 the negative attributes (apurisaṃtarakaḍaṃ), I have contracted both paragraphs in the translation.

[2]:

Parisāḍeṃsu vā, explained parikṣepaṇādikāḥ kriyāḥ kuryuḥ.

[3]:

The translation of some of the words in the text is merely conjectural.

[4]:

Vaṭṭaya. I think this is the modern baṭṭak, duck.

[5]:

The commentator says: where they fall like a tree, having starved themselves to death, or where they fall from trees.

[6]:

Terminalia Tomentosa.

[7]:

Crotolaria Juncea.

[8]:

Grislea Tomentosa.

[9]:

Pandanus Odoratissimus.

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