BUDDHIST MONASTIC CODE I

Buddhist Monastic Code 191. When a bhikkhu is having a rains-bathing cloth made, it is tobe made to the standard measurement. Here the standard is this: sixspans — using the sugata span — in length, two and a half spans inwidth. In excess of that, it is to be cut down and confessed.Object. The rains-bathing cloth has already been discussed in detail under NP 24.Taking the sugata span as 25 cm., the standard measurement for the rains-bathingcloth would be 1.5 m. by 62.5 cm.Effort, intention, & non-offenses. The permutations of these factors are the same asunder Pc 89.Summary: Acquiring an overly large rains-bathing cloth after making it — or havingit made — for one's own use is a pācittiya offense requiring that one cut the clothdown to size before confessing the offense.92. Should any bhikkhu have a robe made the measurement of thesugata robe or larger, it is to be cut down and confessed. Here, themeasurement of the Sugata's sugata robe is this: nine spans — usingthe sugata span — in length, six spans in width. This is themeasurement of the Sugata's sugata robe.Object. The term sugata — meaning well-gone or accomplished — is an epithet forthe Buddha.Robe is not defined in the Vibhaṅga here but apparently means any of the threebasic robes: the lower robe, the upper robe, and the outer robe. This raises aninteresting point: Perhaps in the Buddha's time all three of the basic robes wereapproximately the same size. This would have made it much more convenient than itis at present to hold to the practice of using only one set of three robes. Whenwashing one robe, one could wear the other two without looking out of line.At any rate, taking the sugata span to be 25 cm. would put the size of the Buddha'srobes at 2.25 m. by 1.50 m. — much larger than the lower robes used at present,but much smaller than present-day upper and outer robes.As we will see under Appendix II, various theories have been offered over thecenturies as to the length of the sugata span. Beginning at least with the time of theMahā Aṭṭhakathā, one of the ancient commentaries, the Buddha was assumed to beof three-times normal height, and so his handspan, cubit, etc., were assumed to bethree-times normal length. Only recently, within the last century or so, have Vinayaexperts taken evidence from the Canon to show that the Buddha, though tall, wasnot abnormally so, and thus the estimate of the sugata span, etc., has shrunkaccordingly. Still, the traditional estimates of the Buddha's height continue to424