Ancient Indian Education (Brahmanical and Buddhist) c31.50

c31.50

**Diet.** The diet of the monks in I-tsing's time corresponded to the rules of the Vinaya and comprised the *Pañchabhojanīyas*, viz. rice, a boiled mixture of barley and peas, baked corn-flour, meat and cakes, and the *Pañchakhādanīyas* consisting of roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, and fruits (p. 43). There are mentioned also gruel made of dried rice and bean soup which "is served with hot butter sauce as flavouring", melted butter and cream to be "partaken of to any extent" (p. 40), and ghee, oil, milk which were abundant everywhere (p. 44). These articles of diet varied with the countries. "In the north wheat-flour is abundant; in the western district baked flour (rice or barley) is used above all; in Magadha wheat-flour is scarce but rice is plentiful; and the southern frontier and the eastern borderland have similar products to those of Magadha" (p. 43). None of the people of all the five parts of India ate any kind of onions (pp. 45, 138).