In the Pitakas[530] Kassapa’s disciples are described as dhutavada and the advantages arising from the observance of the Dhutangas are enumerated in the Questions of Milinda.  It is probable that the Buddha himself had little sympathy with them.  He was at any rate anxious that they should not degenerate into excesses.  Thus he forbade[531] his disciples to spend the season of the rains in a hollow tree, or in a place where dead bodies are kept, or to use an alms bowl made out of a skull.  Now Kassapa had been a Brahman ascetic and it is probable that in tolerating the Dhutangas the Buddha merely intended to allow him and his followers to continue the practices to which they were accustomed.  They were an influential body and he doubtless desired their adhesion, for he was sensitive to public opinion[532] and anxious to conform to it when conformity involved no sacrifice of principle.  We hear repeatedly that the laity complained of some practice of his Bhikkhus and that when the complaint was brought to his ears he ordered the objectionable practice to cease.  Once the king of Magadha asked the congregation to postpone the period of retreat during the rains until the next full moon day.  They referred the matter to the Buddha:  “I prescribe that you obey kings,” was his reply.

One obvious distinction between the Buddha’s disciples and other confraternities was that they were completely clad, whereas the Ajivikas, Jains and others went about naked.  The motive for this rule was no doubt decency and a similar thought made Gotama insist on the use of a begging bowl, whereas some sectaries collected scraps of food in their hands.  Such extravagances led to abuses resembling the degradation of some modern fakirs.  Even the Jain scriptures admit that pious householders were disgusted by the ascetics who asked for a lodging in their houses—­naked, unwashed men, foul to smell and loathsome to behold[533].  This was the sort of life which the Buddha called anariyam, ignoble or barbaric.  With such degradation of humanity he would have nothing to do.  He forbade nakedness, as well as garments of hair and other uncomfortable costumes.  The raiment which he prescribed consisted of three pieces of cloth of the colour called kasava.  This was probably dull orange, selected as being unornamental.  It would appear that in mediaeval India the colour in use was reddish:  at present a rather bright and not unpleasing yellow is worn in Burma, Ceylon, Siam and Camboja.  Originally the robes were made of rags collected and sewed together but it soon became the practice for pious laymen to supply the Order with raiment.

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