The Philosophy of the Upanishads c12.s3.t3.37

c12.s3.t3.37

(3) Dress and Equipment. On these also great differences of opinion exist. The robe should according to Sanny. 3, Kaṇṭh. 5 be dark red, according to Jâb. 5 colourless, according to Kaṇṭh. 2 torn or made of bark, according to Sanny. 4 patched. Âsr. 4 permits the Bahûdaka to wear a loin-cloth and dark red robe, the Paramahaṃsa only rags and a loin-cloth. Par. 4 requires of the latter that space be his clothing, Jâb. 6 that he should live “naked as he was born.” Together with the coat, girdle and thread, the staves also of palâśa, bilva or aśvattha wood, which serve to distinguish the castes, must be laid aside.² In their place the triple staff, composed of three staves twisted together (tridaṇḍam, probably as a token of the reconciliation of caste differences), makes its appearance,³ but even this is sometimes forbidden.⁴ We have instead the single staff (token of complete reconciliation),⁵ or the staff of bamboo.⁶ Even this however is prohibited⁷ with the remark that he who carries knowledge alone as his staff is rightly named a man with a single staff. Âsr. 4 introduces system again here by permitting the triple staff to the Bahûdaka, to the Haṃsa the single staff, and allows no staff to the Paramahaṃsa. Similarly in Sanny. 3 a sieve, in Kaṇṭh. 5 a ragged cloth is allowed for the straining of liquid, to prevent the destruction of any living thing; on the contrary, in Jâb. 6 and the verses of Kaṇṭh. 5 even cloth-strainers are forbidden. A covering is permitted by Par. 1, but Par. 2 prohibits this for the highest grade. A summary in verse is given of the objects which a less strict observance allows to the Sannyâsin :—