ABSTRACT
The four ‘drinkables’ (cattâri pâòagâiô), i.e. allowable liquids, and the four ‘undrinkables’ (cattâri apâòagâiô), or permitted ‘substitutes’ for liquids, as BARUA (1920: 30) takes it, and BASHAM (1951: 128) agrees, are exposed by Goœâla in his final days. These are not only a theoretical device but make up his actual final penance. This is how he describes them:
‘What are the drinkables (pâòagâiô)? There are four drinkables known, namely: 1. [water] which has touched earth,146 2. [water] which has been soiled with earth by hand,147 3. [water] which has been heated by the heat [of a kiln],148 4. what has dropped down from the stone [of a potter’s wheel].149 What are the ‘undrinkables’ (apâòagae)? There are four undrinkables known, namely: 1. [the simulation of] a drink of a vessel,150 2. [the simulation of] a drink of [fruit] skin,151 3. [the simulation of] a drink of kidney-bean
(a drink of pod?)152,153 4. [the simulation of] a drink of the pure [substances].’154
