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Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24: Chapter XVI: Residence

Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24

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Chapter XVI: Residence

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**Residence.** From food, medicine, and dress we now come to the dwelling of the monk, on which the texts give us much interesting and apparently trustworthy information. Originally the monks were devoid of any dwelling-house properly so called. They "dwelt now here, now there—in the woods, at the foot of trees, on hill-sides, in grottoes, in mountain caves, in cemeteries, in forests, in open plains, and in heaps of straw". Then the Seṭṭhi of Rājagaha seeing them coming from all such places offered to erect fixed dwellings for them. The offer was accepted by the Buddha who ruled: "I allow you, O Bhikkhus, abodes of five kinds (*pañcha lenāni*)—Vihāras, Aḍḍhayogas [*Suvaṇṇa-vaṅgagehā* (Buddhaghosha),¹ i.e. a gold-coloured Bengal house, or a house shaped like a garuḍa bird (Childers)], Pāsādas or Prāsādas (i.e. storied dwellings or towers), *Hammiyas* or Harmyas (i.e. stone houses with a flat roof), and *Guhās* or caves" (defined by Buddhaghosha as a hut made of bricks, or in a rock, or of wood) [*Mahāv.*, i, 30, 4, and *Chullav.*, vi, 1, 2]. Then the merchant "had sixty dwelling-places put up in one day" which, under the Buddha's directions, he dedicated "to the use of the Saṁgha of the four directions whether present or to come". The Buddha gave him thanks in the following words which admirably explain the need of dwelling-places:

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¹ The reading is more correctly *supaṇṇa vaṅkageha*, 'like a Garuḷa bird's crooked wing,' where the roof is bent on one side [Pali Text Society's *Dictionary*].

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"Cold he wards off and, heat, so also beasts of prey,
And creeping things and gnats, and rains in the wet season.
And when the dreaded, heated winds arise, they are kept off.
To give Vihāras to the Saṁgha, wherein in safety and in peace
To meditate and think at ease, the Buddha calls the best of gifts.
Let then the able man, regarding his own weal,
Have pleasant monasteries built and lodge there learned men.
Let him with cheerful mind give food to them and drink,
Raiment, and dwelling-places, to the upright in heart."
[*Chullav.*, vi, 1, 2.]

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**Varshāvāsa (Rain-retreat).** The need of a shelter was imperative in the rainy season when the monks were enjoined to take to a retreat (*vassāvāsa*, lit. retreat of the year), suspending itinerancy. This injunction is stated to have been the consequence of another concession of Buddhism to popular feeling which was outraged by the monks travelling about in the rains and destroying the life they call into being in the green herbs, vegetables, and animalculae. "Even the Titthiyas," so murmured the people, "whose doctrine is supposed to be ill preached, even they try to avoid this injury to life by making themselves retreats; even birds make themselves nests at that season of the year, while the Sākyaputtiya Samaṇas alone are out for destroying life!" [*Mahāv.*, iii, 1].

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**'Vassa.'** Buddhaghosha [quoted in *SBE.*, xiii, p. 299 n.] thus describes how the monks were to begin the retreat: "They are to look after their Vihāra (if it is in a proper state), to provide food and water for themselves, to fulfil all due ceremonies, such as paying reverence to sacred shrines, etc., and to say loudly once, or twice, or thrice: 'I enter upon Vassa in this Vihāra for these three months.' Thus they are to enter upon Vassa." This statement of Buddhaghosha shows that by his time the place of retreat might be the very Vihāra in which the monk usually lived, and, also, that while the retreat during the rains at some fixed abode was compulsory to every monk, it was optional in other times. The *Vinaya*, as we shall presently see, points to the more usual earlier custom of the monks taking up their places of abode in new dwellings rather than in their old ones. "There are two periods for entering upon Vassa, the earlier and the later. The earlier is the day after the full moon of Āshāḍha (June–July); the later, a month after this" [*Mahāv.*, iii, 2, 2].

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There are regulations for determining the legitimate location for the retreat. It might be in a cattle pen, in a ship on a voyage, or even in a cart on a journey with a caravan. But one must not live in a hollow tree like a goblin or on the branch of a tree like a huntsman, and not in the open air, nor in a house for keeping corpses, nor under a sun-shade like a cowherd, nor an earthenware vessel like the Titthiyas [ib., iii, 12].

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**Change of Retreat.** The retreat was chosen on the principle that it must not be liable to interruption from any cause. The texts give us an idea of the possible interruptions of the times. Monks were permitted to change their retreat if they were troubled by beasts of prey, by snakes, by robbers or "demons", or if they are cut off from the source of their supply of food, medicine, and other services of laymen in the neighbouring village, where they begged, being destroyed by fire or flood or broken up by robbers or if their own residence is similarly destroyed. The monks must also remove from the neighbourhood of temptations offered by women, relations, kings, robbers, and rascals, or of other monks who cause divisions in the Saṁgha or from the place where they stumble upon "an ownerless treasure" [*Mahāv.*, iii, 9–11].

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**Travelling in rains when permitted.** For urgent reasons, mostly connected with religion or other imperative duties, the monks were allowed to travel out of their retreat, but the absence must not exceed a period of seven days. Thus they could respond to the call of a Bhikkhu in sickness needing their nursing, or one asking for help in his inward struggles, doubts of conscience, or tendency towards false doctrines, or one who, having committed a grave offence, has to be dealt with by a duly constituted Saṁgha with its quorum made up. Monks were also allowed to respond to the call of sick parents, brothers, sisters, relations, and co-disciples (*Bhikkhu-gatika*) [ib., 6–7].

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Another imperative call was that from a lay-devotee (Upāsaka) who wanted the monks to hear him recite "a celebrated Suttanta" lest it "fall into oblivion" [ib., 5, 9].

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Lastly, the monks were of course "to go out on the Saṁgha's business" [ib., 8]. Such business was mostly connected with the execution of gifts offered by the laity. Such gifts were largely forthcoming during the *Vassa* when the lay donors could more easily get into touch with the monks with their movements suspended, and thus opportunities of serving the Order by their support.

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**Different kinds of Dwelling provided for a Saṁgha.** The texts speak of the variety of the gifts. We read of an Upāsaka offering a quantity of wood cut in the forest for a Vihāra in ruins and sending word to the monks in retreat that they might "fetch that wood" [ib.]. We read how Udena, a Kosalan devotee, having a Vihāra built for the Saṁgha, sent a messenger to the Buddha and his monks, then spending the rains at the Jetavana park at Sāvatthi, with the following words: "Might their Reverences come hither! I desire to bestow gifts on them and to hear the Dhamma and to see the Bhikkhus" [ib., 5, 1–5]. In this connection, we are also told that these gifts to the Order from their Upāsakas comprised the following, viz. the five types of dwelling already mentioned, and their various adjuncts, of Karla : Interior of Cave-Monastery [ *c.* second century A.D. ]

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which we have an interesting list including “ a store-room, a refectory, a fire-room, a warehouse, a privy, a place to walk in, a house to walk in, a well, a well house, a *jantāghara*, a *jantāghara* room, a lotus-pond, a pavilion, a park or the site for a park” [ib., 6].

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We thus find that the dwellings of the monks covered a wide range both as regards their build and their structure. From the mere hut made of sticks collected in the forest, and grass, and the solitary cell or cave, we come to higher and higher forms of building in the Vihāras, either as detached houses or as complex wholes, Prāsādas, storied houses, and Ārāmas, elaborately equipped with all kinds of dwelling, assembly-halls, dining-halls, structures for warm baths and ablutions, and council-chambers, and equipped also with furniture of diverse kinds satisfying every need of health and life and securing a fair level of comforts.

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**Hut.** At the bottom of the scale was the hut for the use of the solitary Bhikkhu, which was of the standard size measuring 12 spans (of the Buddha’s span) in length and 7 spans in breadth [*Pāt.*, p. 9]. It must also have an open space around it so as to allow a bullock cart to pass round it. Its site must also be approved by the Saṁgha as free from danger (“ either to living creatures by clearing the site or to the future resident after it is built”). We read of a Bhikkhu collecting by begging the materials for the construction of such a hut [ib.].

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**Cave.** Next we have the *Guhā*, the crypt or cave, of which we have already referred to the various forms as explained by Buddhaghosha, according to whom it might be an artificial structure made of brick or wood, or an excavation out of a rock. The earliest historical examples of the latter form are the caves excavated by Asoka, and his grandson Daśaratha, in the Barabar and Nagarjuni hills of Gaya and presented as free gifts to the rivals and opponents of the Buddhists, the Ājīvikas.

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**Vihāra.** Lastly come the storied house, the Vihāra, and the Ārāma. We read of a rule that no monk “ shall hurriedly sit down or lie down in the upper storey of a dwelling common to a Saṁgha” (lest he might unwittingly upset the furniture) [*Pāt.*, p. 34]. The private chambers of monks were sometimes “ on an upper storey” [*Chullav.*, vi, 3, 3]. There is a reference to King Bimbisāra wishing “ to build a *pāsāda*, covered with cement and clay, for the use of the Saṁgha” and in that connection five kinds of roofing are mentioned, viz. those of brick, stone, cement, straw, and leaves [ib., vi, 3, 11]. We also read of Visākhā, the mother of Migāra, being "anxious to have a storied building (*pāsāda*) with a verandah (*ālinda*) to it, supported on pillars with capitals of elephant heads, built for the use of the Saṁgha" [ib., vi, 14, 1].

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The *Vihāra* was originally the private apartment of a single Bhikkhu [*Chullav.*, ii, 1, 2]. Such Vihāras lay near one another in numbers. Later, the term came to denote a larger building with apartments for many monks. Thus we read of Suppiyā, the self-sacrificing sister of the brotherhood, "going around from Vihara to Vihāra and from cell to cell," asking of each individual occupant thereof what he required as food or medicine [*Mahāv.*, vi, 23]. We are again told of a Vihāra taken up for their Retreat by seventeen monks who are subsequently joined by six others for whom also accommodation is found there [*Chullav.*, vi, 11]. We also read of Vihāras being "crowded with people" [ib., 3, 3]. We may also compare the expression: "Go, therefore, O Bhikkhus, *each one to his Vihāra*" [ib., vii, 3, 10]. Elaborate details are given regarding the construction of a Vihāra in the extended sense and of its equipment, which show that it must have been a very complex structure fitted with all arrangements necessary for the life of a numerous community of monks residing together in the same building.

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It is to be noted that the impulse to the construction of Vihāras for monks came from the words of the Buddha himself, such as the following: "To give *Vihāras* to the Saṁgha where, in safety and in peace, to meditate and think at ease, the Buddha calls the best of gifts. Let then the able man, regarding his own weal, have pleasant monasteries built and lodge their learned men" [*Chullavagga*, vi, 1, 5]. Incidentally we may again note that this growth of collective life and organization in education is a fundamental point of distinction between the Buddhist and the Brahmanical system, which depended more upon the solitude of hermitages in the woods as an aid to spiritual life than the social atmosphere of a Saṁgha humming with the activities of several thousands of monks in residence in the neighbourhood of busy haunts of men where they could go for begging.

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**Details of Construction.** Vihāras were fitted with doors, doorposts, and lintel, with arrangements for bolts, lock, and key; with windows made with railings, network, or slips of wood, and window-blinds and shutters; solid benches against the wall of a room or under the verandah against the outside wall of the house [*Chullavagga*, vi, 2]; "verandahs, covered terraces, inner verandahs and overhanging eaves" together with "movable screens" "lest the verandahs might be too public" [ib., 3, 5]; halls or sheds for the *Kaṭhina* ceremony with a high basement, against inundation, with facing of brick, stone, or wood and flight of steps protected by balustrade [ib., v, 11, 6]; "service-hall" [ib., vi, 3, 6]; cloisters on high basement with solid facing, steps with protecting balustrade, and railing, and a separate waiting hall; bath-house similarly constructed and fitted with door, bolt, lock, and key, arrangements for hot baths, necessary furniture, solid flooring, and facing of the walls as antidote to damp, drains to carry off the water, antechamber [ib., v, 14], and sometimes a separate hot bathroom, Jantāghara, furnished with clay (which might be scented) for protection against heat, and chairs where hot or steam baths were taken, with an attached cell or cooling room [ib., viii, 8, 2; v, 14, 3, and *Mahāv.*, i, 25, 12]; wells (to provide against want of water in the bathroom) lined with solid facing with a lid to it, a shed over it properly built and furnished with troughs and basins, and water vessels of brass, wood, or skin, while the water was raised "by the use of a long pole balanced as a lever, of a bullock-machine, or of a wheel and axle" [*Chullav.*, v, 16]; and, lastly, the store-house built as a separate house with necessary fittings for securing the stores [ib., vi, 3, 8], where sometimes shelter was given to outsiders overtaken by rain and storm on their promising to provide the Saṁgha with a meal [*Mahāv.*, vi, 33], while sometimes the stores of the Saṁgha were kept on laymen's premises [ib., 33, 5].

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**Its Outhouses.** It will thus appear that there were several outhouses or detached buildings, each serving an independent purpose, in connection with the Vihāra, viz. the privies or cloisters, the bath-house, the hall for the *Kaṭhina* ceremony or robe-distribution, the bathing house in connection with the well, and the store-house, and the conference Hall of the Saṁgha [*Chullav.*, viii, 2], all of which were built on a common design and solidly.

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**Its Ramparts.** The Vihāras were enclosed within "ramparts (*prākāra*) of three kinds—brick walls, stone walls, and wooden fences" [*Chullav.*, vi, 3, 8].

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**Its Inner Chambers.** We shall now go into the interior of these Vihāras. The privacy of the inmates was maintained by the provision of "inner chambers" for sleeping purposes which were to be of three kinds—"chambers in shape like a palankeen, or like a quart measure, or chambers on an upper storey.” They would be “at one side of the small Vihāras and in the middle of large ones”. In imitation of the arrangements in the Vihāras of the Titthiya sects, the sleeping rooms were whitewashed, the floors were coloured black, and the walls coloured with red chalk [*Chullav.*, vi, 3]. Some Vihāras were thatched and thus cold in winter and hot in summer whence it was arranged “to cover them with skins and plaster them within and without” [ib., vi, 2, 2]. To prevent rain leaking through, recourse was had to “a protecting arrangement and cement” [ib., vi, 3, 4], while a ceiling-cloth was used as a protection against snakes falling from the roof [ib.].

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**Its Furniture.** Within the rooms we find the furniture of the Bhikkhu to include bedsteads “made of laths of split bamboo” [ib., vi, 2, 3], with a texture of string woven across through the pierced sides [ib., vi, 2, 6], with legs of standard height equal to 8 inches of accepted inch [*Pāt.*, p. 53]; varieties of chairs except the long-armed ones [*Chullav.*, v, 37, 1; vi, 2. 4]; pillows of cotton of the size of a man’s head [ib., vi, 2, 6]; pins in the wall and bone-hooks to hang the bags on [ib., vi, 3, 5]; cupboards, bamboos, and strings to hang robes on [ib., v, 11, 7]. The Bhikkhus were further allowed the use of mosquito curtains [ib., v, 13, 3], mosquito-fans, or fly-whisks, sunshades [ib., v, 23], nail-cutters, and all the apparatus of a barber [ib., v, 27, 2–3], needles, thimbles, and scissors to be kept in a drawer or a box in the workshop [ib., v, 11, 5], and, lastly, to decorate their rooms with representations of wreaths and creepers and not of men and women [ib., v, 11, 6; vi, 3, 2]. On account of its valuable furniture, fittings, and stores, it was ordained that the Bhikkhus must not leave a Vihāra without placing someone in charge of it, whether a Bhikkhu or a Sāmaṇera, and, failing either, the Ārāmiko, the gardener of the Saṁgha [*Chullav.*, viii, 3, 2].

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**Ārāma.** Some of the larger Vihāras were set in the midst of a large compound with extensive grounds technically called the Ārāma or park. We have already seen that the grounds were sown with crops [*Mahāv.*, vi, 39], under a system by which the harvest was divided equally between the Saṁgha and the agriculturists to whom the cultivation would be committed. We also read of the plantations of the Ārāmas being protected against the inroads of “goats and cattle” by means of fencing of bamboo, or thorn, or of ditches, and of gateways, “with gates made of stakes interlaced with thorny brakes, with fences (across the gateway) made of the akka plant, with ornamental screen-work over the gateway ('of which such excellent examples in stone have been found at the Sānchi and Bharhut Topes'), and with bars" [*Chullav.*, vi, 3, 10].

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**Its Baths.** The Ārāmas afforded the pleasures of bathing. Pools were constructed at the entrance to the Ārāma and the privacy of both was secured by enclosing them with "brick walls, stone walls, and wooden fences". Lest the pool be muddy, it was usual to flag it with three kinds of flooring of brick, stone, or wood, and provide it with a drain so that the water might not settle. Sometimes an Ārāma might have a tank. We read of the gift of such a tank by an Upāsaka to the Saṁgha. Lest the sides of the tank should fall in, it was usual to line the tank with facing of brick, stone, or wood, and to provide flights of stairs of those materials for easy access to the water, flanked by a balustrade for protection. Lest the water should become "stale", pipes were used "to lay on the water, and to drain the water off" [ib., v, 17].

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**Rules of Bath.** It may be noted in this connection that certain rules were to be observed by the Bhikkhus in making use of the public, as well as private, bathing places. "Sporting in the water" (i.e. "throwing water over one another and chasing one another") was forbidden [*Pāt.*, p. 44], as also rubbing their bodies against wood, or up against each other, or with any wooden instrument or a string of beads [*Chullav.*, v, 1, 1-3]. "The ordinary mode of shampooing, with the hand, was allowed" [ib., v, 1, 5]. A Bhikkhu suffering from scab was allowed the use of a *mallaka* ("a kind of back-scratcher made up of hooks of split crocodiles' teeth") [ib., v, 1, 4]. No Bhikkhu was allowed to bathe at intervals of less than half a month, except during the last one month and a half of the heats and the first month of the rains, or during the time of sickness or of travelling [ib.].

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**Hot Bath.** There was also "a rule of conduct for the Bhikkhus in respect of the hot bathroom (*jantāghara*), according to which they ought to behave themselves therein" [*Chullav.*, viii, 8, 2]. The Bhikkhu who first enters the bathroom is to clean the fire-place of ashes, if any, and sweep the bathroom, its flooring, the cell, the ante-chamber of the bath, the cooling room, and the hall. He must also get ready the necessaries of bath by pounding the chunam, moistening the clay (to be used against heat) with water, and filling the jar with water. "A seat is not to be taken so as to hustle the senior Bhikkhus and junior Bhikkhus are not to be ousted from their seats. If possible, shampooing is to be performed for the senior Bhikkhus in the hot bathroom." "A bath is not to be taken in front of the senior Bhikkhus, nor above them. One who has bathed and is getting up out (of the water) is to make way for one who is getting down into the water." "Whoso comes last out of the hot bathroom is to wash it, if it be dirty; to wash the vessel in which the clay is kept, to put the chairs used in the hot bathroom in order, to extinguish the fire, to close up the doorway, and then come out" [ib.]. No Bhikkhu was allowed to comb his hairs or to use a looking-glass [ib., v, 2].

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It may be noted in passing that these regulations were suggested, according to the texts, by the various sanitary difficulties which arose from the living together of many Bhikkhus. "Each such difficulty is quite solemnly said to have been reported to the Blessed One, and he is said to have found a way out of it." A fixed bathing place was given when it was found that "the Bhikkhus used to bathe anywhere all over the Ārāma and the Ārāma became muddy" [*Chullav.*, v, 17, 1], and the privies were constructed when it was found that "the Bhikkhus made water here and there in the Ārāma, and the Ārāma was defiled" [ib., v, 35].

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**The Jetavana Vihāra as an ideal Vihāra.** The best example of a Vihāra was that constructed for the Saṁgha by the merchant prince Anāthapiṇḍika in the Ārāma made in the garden of Prince Jeta. The ideal site for such an Ārāma as indicated by the Buddha was that it must be "not too far from the town and not too near, convenient for going and for coming, easily accessible for all who wish to visit him, by day not too crowded, by night not exposed to too much noise and alarm, protected from the wind, hidden from men, well fitted for a retired life". The Jetavana being such a site, the merchant was anxious to acquire it for his Master but was told by the owner: "It is not, Sir, for sale even for a sum so great that the pieces of money would be sufficient to cover it if they were laid side by side." The merchant took advantage of this supposed offer by saying: "I take, sir, the garden at the price." The Prince, puzzled at this unexpected reply, tried to back out, saying: "No, O householder, there was no bargain meant." But the merchant insisted on this unusual bargain being closed, though he had everything to lose by it: he was serving his religion in the manner of a Shylock. He took the matter to law, demanding the specific performance of the contract, and "asked the Lords of Justice whether a bargain of sale had been made or not. And the Lords decided thus: 'The Ārāma is taken, Sir, at the price which you fixed.' " In pursuance of the Court's judgment and decree, the merchant "had gold brought down in carts" and covered the entire space of the extensive garden with the gold pieces laid side by side (the pieces being not round but square ones according to their representation on a bas-relief at the Bharhut Stūpa). But there was left one small space close by the gateway which could not be covered by the gold brought. The donor was sending for a fresh supply when he was stopped by the Prince, now moved by this charity which, he declared, "was no ordinary matter": "It is enough, O householder. You need not have that space covered. Let me have that space, and it shall be my gift." Anāthapiṇḍika, considering the Prince to be a valuable acquisition to the Order, yielded to his wishes. "And Jeta, the Kumāra, erected thereon a gateway with a room over it." "And Anāthapiṇḍika, the householder, built dwelling rooms, retiring rooms, storerooms over the gateways, service halls, halls with fire-places in them, storehouses outside the Vihāra, closets, cloisters, halls for exercise, wells and sheds for the wells, bath-rooms and halls attached to the bath-rooms, ponds and open-roofed sheds or arbours (*maṇḍapas*)" [*Chullav.*, vi, 4].

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**Other famous Vihāras.** There were several other Vihāras and Ārāmas placed at the disposal of the Saṁgha in the time of the Buddha. The specifically Buddhist India was noted for its four chief centres or cities at each of which the Saṁgha owned a number of monasteries serving as the seats of Buddhist learning. Thus we read of Yashṭivana, Venuvana, and Sītavana at Rājagṛiha¹; Jetavana and Pūrbārāma at Śrāvastī; Mahāvana, Kūtāgāra Hall, and Mango-grove at Vaiśālī; and Nigrodhārāma at Kapilavastu. We also read of Ghoshitārāma at Kauśāmbī and the Mango-grove of Chunda the Smith at Pāvā.

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¹ A list of the several dwelling-places used by the Buddha at Rājagṛiha is given in Mahā-parinibbāna-Sutta, ch. iii, 57.

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**Vihāra Staff.** The management of these elaborately equipped establishments where so many monks lived together naturally called for a numerous and varied staff of officials with a well worked-out differentiation of functions. The Saṁgha staff included the following officers: (1) the Apportioner or Distributor of lodging-places. The usual method was first to count the Bhikkhus, then to count the sleeping places available, and then to apportion accordingly [*Chullav.*, vi, 11, 3]. When the supply was greater than the demand, the distribution was to be on the basis of the apartments (*Vihāras*), available and even of buildings (*Pariveṇas*) [ib.]. Resident Bhikkhus were often "worried by having constantly to provide sleeping accommodation for travelling Bhikkhus who came in from country-places" [ib., vi, 15, 1]. Bhikkhus belonging to the same division or having common subjects of study were usually given lodging places in the same quarter [ib., iv, 4, 4]. Novices wanting in merit were of course given inferior lodging-places [ib., iv, 4, 5]. The office of the regulator of lodging-places was coupled with that of (2) the regulator or apportioner of rations. The two offices were combined by the Venerable Dabba the Mallian who, having attained to Arahatship when he was only seven years old, and thus "gained everything that a learner can reach to", and finding nothing further left for him to do, thought of what service it was possible for him to render to the Saṁgha and in a true spirit of positivism, came to the conclusion that "it would be a good thing for me to regulate the lodging-places for the Saṁgha and to apportion the rations of food". The appointments were then formally offered to him by a Resolution of the Saṁgha [ib.]. Novices got inferior rations. We read of gifts to senior Bhikkhus by lay-devotees of ghee, oil, and dainty bits and to novices of only scraps of food and sour gruel [ib.]. Other members of the Saṁgha staff included (3) the overseer of stores, (4) receiver of robes, (5) distributor of robes, congey, or fruits, (6) distributor of dry foods, (7) disposer of trifles (e.g. needle, pairs of scissors, sandals and braces, girdle, filtering cloth, regulation strainer, etc.), (8) receiver of under-garments, (9) receiver of bowls, (10) Ārāmikas or those who kept the grounds of the Ārāmas in order, (11) Superintendents of Ārāmikas to look after their work, and (12) Superintendents of Sāmaṇeras to keep them to their duties [*Chullav.*, vi, 21].

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**Vihāra as a School of Arts and Crafts.** These offices show that the monks had to engage in various kinds of practical, secular work instead of being constantly or exclusively occupied in purely religious or spiritual exercises. In fact, the monasteries opened up ample opportunities for business training or education in the practical arts and crafts for their inmates. Thus we frequently read of instances when the Bhikkhus are deputed to serve as "building overseers" to take charge of building operations on behalf of a lay donor constructing a Vihāra for the purposes of the Saṁgha [ib., vi, 17], so that the buildings might be in accordance with "the rules of the Order as to size, form, and object of the various apartments". Such an overseer was called *Navakammika*. The appointment was formally made by a Resolution of the Order [ib., vi, 5, 3]. The Bhikkhus who superintended building works were of course provided with requisite clothes, food, lodging, and medicines at the cost of the donor of the building [ib.]. We read of a Bhikkhu taking advantage of such hospitality by demanding a special dish at a particular meal—tila seed cake—and, on his conduct being reported to the Buddha, he was rebuked [ib., i, 18]. Bhikkhus had to superintend not merely new constructions but also repair works [ib., vi, 5, 2]. Sometimes what with superintending new works or repairs to old works the Bhikkhus managed to assign these offices to one another for terms of twenty or thirty years or even for life. This abuse called for a rule whereby the period of *Navakamma* was fixed according to the character of the construction concerned. Thus "with reference to the work on a small *Vihāra* it may be given in charge as a *Navakamma* for a period of five or six years, that on an *Aḍḍhayoga* for a period of seven or eight years, that on a large *Vihāra* or a *Pāsāda* for ten or twelve years" [ib., vi, 17].

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Along with the supervision of building operations, we may notice that the Bhikkhus are allowed "the use of a loom and of shuttles, strings, tickets, and all the apparatus belonging to a loom" [*Chullav.*, v, 28]. The Bhikkhus are also represented as being ill at ease without the practice of some handicraft [ib.]. They are also expected to prepare their own robes and keep them in fit condition with the help of all necessary weaving appliances [ib., v, 11].

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