The one line by which a forfeited robe is given back to the monk who forfeited it.
- When chanted
- Spoken by the monk who received a forfeited robe, immediately after the forfeiture.
A note on this chant. The book prints this chant in Pali only, with no Thai translation. The English here is a working translation prepared for this edition — it is not the book's own, and has not yet been checked by a teacher.
Historical background
The shortest formula in this run, and it completes the previous one. A robe forfeited is not confiscated; it is handed over and then handed straight back.
Without this line the previous page would leave a monk without a robe, which is not what the rule intends.
Meaning and purpose
อิมัง จีวะรัง อายัส๎มะโต ทัมมิ — I give this robe to the venerable one. It is a gift, in form, from the person who just received it.
The whole exchange takes perhaps twenty seconds and leaves both parties exactly where they started, which is the point. What has happened is not a transfer of property but the acknowledgement of a fault, done with an object in hand so that it cannot be done vaguely.
The tradition is full of procedures shaped this way. The material outcome is nil; the thing that changes is that something has been said in front of somebody.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 302 →
page 302อิมัง จีวะรัง อายัส๎มะโต ทัมมิ.
Imaṃ cīvaraṃ āyasmato dammi.
I give this robe to the venerable one.