Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c24.25

c24.25

**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].