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226 INDIA AS DESCRIBED IN EARLY TEXTS In the Tāpasas, Paribbājakas or Samaņas, taken
order by order or school by school, either asm regards their food or as regards their dress, habits and goals. Al that we can gather from them is only a general description, which is likely to prove misleading. In the Pali Kassapasīhanāda Sutta, we read, for instance, 'He feeds on potherbs, on wild rice, on rnivāra seeds, on leather parings, on the water-plant called hata, on the fine powder which adheres to the grains of rice beneath the husk, on the discarded scum of boiling rice, on the flour of oilseeds, on grasses, on cowdung, on fruits and roots from the woods, on fruits that have fallen of themselves ?.?
This list of ascetic practices concerning food applies mainly to the Tāpasas, and partially only to the Ajivikas who were followers of Makkhali Gosāla, Nanda Vaocha and Kisa Samkicca.
The following account of practises concerning garment and behaviour is applicable partly to the Tāpasas and partly to the clothed Partsbājakas, and, mutatis mutandis, to the Acelakas and some of the Samaņa orders: 'He wears
1 Dialogues of the Buddha, 8.B.B, 11, p. 230. sakabhakkho vã hotr, admdkabhakkho hotr, nivärabhakkho và hot, daddulabhakkho vá hoti, hatabhakklio vá hon, kanabhakicho vă hot, acamabhaklho Mô hot, muscebghe và hot, tabhakho ĐỠ ho, go agabhalckho vähot, varamula phatähäro yõpett pavattaphala whogr. Digha, 1, p. 186,
