जै · The Jain Encyclopedia
Abhakṣya 20 · what cannot be weighed

Unknown fruit and flowers

अज्ञात फल

A fruit or flower whose name you do not know is refused because it cannot be judged: if it is on the list it is wrong to eat, and if it is poisonous it costs a life.

Amuṇiya-nāmāṇi phulla-phalayāṇi, fruits and flowers of unknown name. The reason is procedural rather than doctrinal: the other twenty-one items can be recognised and this one by definition cannot, so the rule is not to guess. It is the item on the plate that stands for the whole method.

The twenty-two, laid by their reasonsPravacanasāroddhāra 245–246 - the verse still recited, bāvīs abhakṣyathe sectors are the commentary's reasons, sized by count; the numbers on the bowls are the verse'sthirteen of the twenty-two are refused for beings you cannot seebeings you cannot seein it, or arising in it13beings without numbera soul in every seed, or infinite in one body3the elements, rawwater and earth, for no need3the eater, or unweighableharm to oneself, or what cannot be judged3the five figsthe four vikṛtis1umbarathe gūlar fig2vaṭathe banyan fig3pippalathe peepal fig4plakṣathe plakṣa fig5kākodumbarathe small fig6madhuhoney7navanītabutter8madyawine9māṃsameat14rātri-bhojanathe night meal17sandhānapickles18ghola-vaṭakapulse in raw curd22calita-rasafood that has turned15bahu-bījamany-seeded fruit16ananta-kāyathe common bodies19vṛntākabrinjal10himasnow12karakahail13mṛdearth11viṣapoison20amuṇiya phulla-phalaunknown fruit, flowers21tuccha-phalaempty fruit22bāvīs abhakṣyaPravacanasāroddhāra 245–246
The twenty-two, laid by their reasons - Unknown fruit and flowers highlighted

Measurements and counts

Place in the verse20
Reasoncannot be judged

Connected

Open in the interactive atlas →

समयं गोयम! मा पमायए

Do not be heedless, Gautama, for even a single samaya.

Uttarādhyayana Sūtra 10