BOOK II, LECTURE I, LESSON 7. IO5 accept food, &c., which is prepared over the fire ; for such food is impure and unacceptable. The Kevalin says : This is the reason: A layman will kill the fire-bodies, by wetting or moistening, wiping or rubbing, throwing up or turning down the food, &c., for the sake of the mendicant. Hence it has been declared to the mendicants: This is the state- ment, this is the reason, this is the order, that they should not accept food, &c., which has been pre- pared over the fire, &c. This certainly is the whole duty, &c. Thus I say. (10)
Seventh Lesson.
A monk or a nun on a begging-tour should not accept food, &c., which has been placed on a post or pillar or beam or scaffold or loft 1 or platform or roof or some such-like elevated place; for such food fetched from above is impure and unacceptable. The Kevalin says: This is the reason : The layman might fetch and erect a stool or a bench or a ladder or a handmill, get upon it, and getting upon it fall or tumble down. Thus he might hurt his foot or arm or breast or belly or head or some other part of his body; or he might kill or frighten or bruise or smash or crush or afflict or pain or dislocate all sorts
1 Mâla. The word is not explained in the Tîkâ and Dîpikâ; the Guzerati translation says that the word is lokapratîta, com- monly understood. It is probably the Marâthî mâl or mâlâ; the former word denotes a loft, floored with bamboos; the second, the room formed by overlaying with slight sticks the cross-beams of a house, a loft, an erection or stand in a cornfield, scaffolding (of a building). Molesworth, Maráthí and English Dictionary, s.v. Digitized by VjOOQlC
