The night meal
Eating after dark is refused because what falls into the food cannot be seen - and the Daśavaikālika gives the abstention the standing of a vow, the sixth beside the monk's five.
The reasons the writers give are all the same reason at different scales. Amṛtacandra: there are tiny insects barely discernible by day that are invisible by night even with a lamp lit. Vasunandin: moths, mice, hairs, bits of bone may fall into the bowl unseen, and a light only dazzles the moths into the platter. Hemacandra, who gives the subject two dozen verses (Yogaśāstra 3.48–70), adds that the first and last muhūrta of the day, when the light is dim, should be kept as well. The Śvetāmbara handbooks treat it in a line where the Digambara ones treat it at length; the atlas notes the difference and draws the rule.
The Daśavaikālika's passage is what makes this item unlike the others on the plate: it is the only abhakṣya that is also a vow. A layperson who keeps it eats between sunrise and sunset and takes nothing, or water only, after; the strictest form, cauvihāra, takes not even water. The clock on the plate marks the two ends of the day.
माप और संख्याएँ
| Place in the verse | 14 |
|---|---|
| Reason | what falls in cannot be seen |
| Standing | a vow - Daśavaikālika |
| Hemacandra | Yogaśāstra 3.48–70 |
| The window | sunrise to sunset |