Rest Days; A Sociological Study 8 1 



In the Sittta A'ipata, a collection of seventy didactic poems 

 belonging to the Pitakas or sacred books of the southern Bud- 

 dhists, Eight Precepts or moral commandments are enumerated, 

 of which five are binding on every Buddhist, whether mendicant 

 or layman, the remaining three not being obligatory for the laity. 

 The entire eight are said to constitute the eight-fold fast or npo- 

 satha declared by the Buddha ; to break any of them on the npo- 

 satJia day (the 14th or 15th and 8th day of the lunar fortnight), is 

 considered highly irreligious. Instead of worshipping the moon 

 or observing lunar taboos, the Buddhists were to keep the fast 

 day by a special fulfillment of the moral law ; one of the many 

 instances in which Gautama gave a spiritual meaning to an earlier 

 superstitious rite.^- That the uposatha celebrated as a lunar fes- 

 tival wdth fasting, avoidance of sexual intercourse, refraining from 

 wearing wreaths and using perfumes, and other regulations, should 

 have come to be regarded as also a rest day, seems only a natural 

 outcome of its character as a season of abstinence. The iipo- 

 satlia is thus discovered amongst the earliest institutions of Bud- 

 dhism ; in its origin it could have owed nothing to Jewish or 

 Christian influence ; in its diffusion throughout southeastern Asia 

 it appears to have remained unaffected by the influence of Islam. 

 If these conclusions be accepted, the Buddhist Sabbath dates back, 

 remotely, to taboos observed at changes of the moon. 



the full-moon day seems to have enjoyed most importance (Oldenberg, 

 loc. cif.) and similarly in Buddhism, Cf. Maha-Sudassana Sutta, i. 11: 

 " On the Sabbath day, on the day of the full moon " (Rhys Davids, Bud- 

 dhist Suttas, S. B. E., xi. 251 sq. Cf. 254 n'). Elsewhere the uposatha 

 service is referred particularly to the fifteenth day, " it being full moon " 

 {Sutta Nipata, iii. 12). 



*^V. Fausboll, The Sutta Nipata, ii. 14, 19 sqq. {Sacred Books of the 

 East, X. part ii. pp. 65 sq.) ; T. W. Rhys Davids, Buddhism, London, 1890, 

 pp. 137 sqq. It may be noted that the last of the Eight Precepts • — " He 

 should sleep on a mat spread on the ground" (:'i. 14, 26) is identical with 

 one of the rites prescribed for the iipavasatha where the celebrant is dis- 

 tinctly enjoined to sleep on the gound (or a shake-down of grass, a 

 blanket). See Satapaflia Brahmana, i. i, i, 11. The prohibition of drink- 

 ing intoxicating liquor (ii. 14, 23) was directed against the ancient soma 

 sacrifice on the second day of the iipavasatha ceremony {Sat. Brah. i. 6, 

 4. 5 sqq.). 



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