The four vikṛtis
Of the ten vikṛtis - the rich foods a layperson limits - four are not limited but forbidden: honey, butter, wine and meat, each because living beings are in it or arise in it.
A vikṛti is a food that changes the one who eats it: milk, curd, butter, ghee, oil, molasses, and then the four that are called mahā, the great ones - honey, butter, wine and meat. The first six are measured; the four are refused. The verse counts them in one word, cau-vigai, four vikṛtis, and does not order them; the recitation says madh, mākhaṇ, madirā, māṃs, and the plate follows it.
Three of the four - meat, wine, honey - are the ma-kāras that the Digambara mūla-guṇas begin with, and with the five figs make the eightfold ban that Hemacandra gives almost the standing of the root virtues. Butter is the odd one: an abhakṣya in every list, but not among the mūla-guṇas.
Measurements and counts
| The ten | milk · curd · butter · ghee · oil · molasses · honey · wine · meat · and the fried |
|---|---|
| Forbidden | honey · butter · wine · meat |
| With the five figs | the eightfold ban |