Local Government in Ancient India c9.63

c9.63

Again the *Cullavagga*, XII. 1, 3 mentions as the fourth among ‘the four stains by which Samaṇas and Brāhmaṇas are affected’ the practice as ‘means of life’ of certain ‘low arts’ which are set out in the *Mahāsīla* (*Tevijja Sutta*, ch. II) as comprising chiefly the black arts, explanation of signs, omens, auguries, dreams, forecasting weather, foretelling events, &c. The *Mil. Pañha* (I. 191) seems to attach an indignity to the crafts of ‘wrestlers, tumblers, jugglers, actors,¹ ballet-dancers, followers of the mystic cult of the sun and moon, of the goddess of fortune and other gods’ who keep the secrets of their craft to their own sect or guild. The *Saddharmapuṇḍarīka* (ch. III) enjoins that Bodhisattvas and preachers must shun ‘Caṇḍālas, jugglers, vendors of pork, poulterers, deer-hunters, butchers, actors and dancers, and wrestlers’. In the *Kulasīla* the Bhikkhu is to abstain from ‘dancing, singing, music, and theatrical shows’; in the *Majjhimasīla* from all public spectacles (of which a most exhaustive list is given), and from ‘performing the servile duties of a go-between, that is to say, between kings, ministers of state, &c.’²