Dear Sir, Your letter dated 10-1-1928 duly at hand. I have carefully gone over the passage of the Acaranga Sutra II 1.10.6 which refers to the eating of 'meat' and 'fish' by Jaina monks or nuns. The result at which I arrived forms the subject of this letter.
Let me begin with the origin of the controversy in about AD 1900. In my translation of the Acaranga Sutra (S.B.E., vol. XXII, Oxford, 1884) I have rendered in the passage under consideration, mamsa and maccha by 'meat' and 'fish'; for, such is the original or primary meaning (mukhyartha) of mamsa and matsya. The Jainas took offence at this rendering and complained about it to Professor Max Muller, the editor of the S.B.E. Series.
In order to justify my translation, I tried to make it probable that in ancient times the prohibition of animal food may not have been so rigorous as it notoriously was in more modern times. But my suggestion has not been accepted, and Mr Khimji Hirji Kayani communicated to me the following explanation of the passage in question by the high priest of the Jain community of Bombay:
"A monk or a nun on a begging tour is prohibited from receiving conserve of fruits containing a large portion of bark or an exterior covering of a fruit, and if inadvertently received then the monk or nun should bury underground the remaining portion of such conserve which cannot be eaten etc."
A similar explanation was given to me by several yatis on my visit to India in the cold season of 1913-14. I duly took notice of their interpretation which I promised to publish when a second edition of my translation of the Acaranga Sutra should be issued, but I refrained from further discussing or disputing the point, and there the matter rested.
Now, the point to be decided is whether mamsa and matsya can be proved to have the meaning conserve of fruits assigned to them by the orthodox interpreters of the passage under consideration. In proof of this assertion no evidence has been brought forward either from Sanskrit Literature or from glossaries (kosas). It is true that matsya-phala and mamsa-phala are names of certain plants, but not the words matsya and mamsa by themselves; and even that meaning would not suit the requirement of our case. Mamsa and maccha occur only once more in the Pindesana (1,9, 3) and there they must be taken in their primary sense of 'meat' and 'fish.' That passage has reference to a meal which is being prepared for a guest or a sick person. After the usual opening words we read mamsam va maccham va majjijjamanam pahae. The attribute majjijjamanutti "being fried or roasted" shows that by mamsa and maccha 'conserve of fruits' cannot be meant. The householder, who makes those preparations for the reception of a guest, need not be a Jaina layman; it is, therefore, not to be wondered at that he has meat or fish roasted for the guest. It will thus be seen that the exegetical rules of philology oblige us to attribute to the words mamsa and maccha, in the doubtful passage, their primary meaning 'meat' and 'fish.' But how are we to reconcile this result with the prohibition of animal-food? Even if it be granted that this prohibition had not been as strictly observed of old as in historical times, still we cannot suppose that at any time a Jaina monk should explicitly admit that under certain conditions he was ready to accept as alms 'meat' and 'fish'; for, that would be the meaning of the passage if understood in its literal sense. I think I can suggest a way out of the dilemma, without either putting an inadmissible practice to the ancient Jaina monks. For, two Sanskrit passages, one in the Mahabhasya of Patanjali and the other in the Tatparya-tika of Vacaspati-misra seem to me to throw some light on the quotation in hand. In discussing a Varttika ad Panini (III, 3, 9) Patanjali illustrates the meaning of nantariyakatva by the following example: 'kascit mamsarthi matsyan sa-sakalan sa-kantakan aharati nantariyakatvat, sa yavad adeyam tavad adaya sakala-kantakany utsrjati evam ihapi' , etc. (The same passage is repeated verbatim in the Mahabhasya ad IV. 1,92).