BUDDHISM. 



ignorance, the three-fold sources of all evil ; and issued his First 

 Parajika injunction, declaring that if any Bhikkhu should 

 cohabit with a woman, he became guilty of a Parajika and 

 excommunicate. It must be remembered that Sudinna was 

 exempt from this, as his fault was committed before the injunc- 

 tion was given. The Bhikkhus however were not slow in dis- 

 covering a way of evading this enactment, and one of them in 

 Wesali, (probably Oude,) cohabited with a female monkey, and 

 afterwards excused himself by saying that the previous injunc- 

 tion was given with regard to women and not beasts. Bhaga- 

 wa then declared that he henceforth prohibited cohabitation 

 with beasts. 



One would be inclined to think that the matter would have 

 been finally settled here ; but no, Bhikkhus disrobed them- 

 selves for the nonce, and as laymen satisfied their brutish appe- 

 tites. Men with men, men with demons, with neuters, with Her- 

 maphrodites are reported to have done those things which it is 

 a shame even to speak of. Every possible plan was frequently 

 employed to evade the enactment, and yet satisfy the more than 

 brutish desires ; and when their ingenuity was exhausted with 

 regard to the living, the Bhikkhus turned to the dead, in order 

 apparently to prove to their master that howsoever his enact- 

 ments might abound, their sins could still keep ahead, and they 

 could discover loopholes of escape. If the corpse was free from 

 decay the fault was a Parajika, but if not it was only a Thul- 

 lachchaya or Dukkata. Several instances of the latter are 

 enumerated as having been committed with skeletons, skulls, 

 &c.,* but these were declared to be only minor faults and easily 



* Tena khopana samayena annataro Bhikkhu siwathikan gantwa 

 ye bhuyyena khayitan sariran passitwa lasmin Methunan Dhamman 

 patisewi. Tassa kukkuchchan ahosi. Anapatti Bhikkhu Parajikassa. 

 A'patti thullachchayassati. 



Tenakhopana samayena annataro Bhikkhu siwatikan gantwa 

 chhinna sisan passitwa wattakate mukhe achchupatta angajatan pawesi. 



