The five words said while making the small mark that renders a new robe allowable to use.
- When chanted
- Spoken by a monk when marking a newly acquired robe, before wearing it.
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
A new robe cannot simply be put on. It has to be marked with a small dot in a corner — พินทุ, from the Pali for a spot — and this sentence is said while the mark is made.
The rule behind it is one of the most practical in the monastic code. A marked robe is identifiable, and an identifiable robe is harder to be vain about and easier to return if it goes astray.
Meaning and purpose
อิมัง พินทุกัปปัง กะโรมิ — I make this mark of allowability. The word กัปปัง is the operative one: it means what is allowable, permitted, made fit for use.
The mark does not consecrate the cloth or bless it. It makes it legally usable, which is a smaller and more exact claim than most formulas in this book make.
It sits at the head of a run of short formulas about cloth — determining, forfeiting, returning, assigning, withdrawing — and together they show how much of monastic life is taken up with the correct handling of a few pieces of fabric.
The chant
As the book prints it: page 302 →
page 302อิมัง พินทุกัปปัง กะโรมิ.
Imaṃ bindukappaṃ karomi.
I make this mark of allowability.