This sutta deals with a similar topic to the previous, with differences in phrasing and content.

These are forms of “misapprehension of precepts and observances” which do not in and of themselves signify spiritual purity.

Compare the “corruptions of the mind” at MN 7:3.2.

“Deadborn” (mataja) is explained by the commentary as meaning forged from iron filings recovered from the corpse of a dead heron, which was force-fed them for that purpose. It sounds bizarre, and I have not been able to trace this practice elsewhere, but people do a lot of bizarre things. | Pītanisita may mean “sharpened with a wet (pīta) stone” per the commentary, or else “sharpened with yellow arsenic” (pīta). Arthaśāstra 2.14.48 describes how metals may be rubbed with yellow arsenic (here = haritāla) to disguise them. This fits the context, where a supposed monk wrapped in the ocher robe is like the metal, outwardly shiny yellow, but inside is deadly.

Wearers of dust and dirt are mentioned at DN 8:14.18 and DN 25:8.16, along with several other items on this list; see too Dhp 141 and Thag 4.5:1.2, and the description of the Bodhisatta at MN 12:46.5. Some ascetics, such as Jains, did not bathe.

Such “matted-hair ascetics” are apparently the “forest hermits” (vānaprastha) whose lifestyle Kauṭilya describes as “celibacy, sleeping on the ground, wearing matted hair and antelope skin, offering daily fire sacrifice, bathing, venerating gods, ancestors, and guests, and eating forest produce” (Arthaśāstra 1.3.11, Olivelle’s translation).

Bhadramukha is used here by family for a child. Elsewhere, by lay people addressing monks (MN 81:21.1); by a laywoman addressing a deity (AN 7.53:3.4); by a king of his grown son (SN 3.7:1.5); and, with the addition of the familiar tāta, by a brahmin wife to her husband (MN 100:3.5). The term is of Sanskritic form and is found commonly in the Avadāna literature. Turning to later Sanskrit sources, Nāṭyaśāstra 19.12 says it should be used when addressing inferiors, while Sāhityadarpaṇa 6.154 says it is used when addressing a prince (see SN 3.7 above). The early Pali usage, however, suggests it was an affectionate and respectful term of somewhat elevated usage, but not restricted by status. Since bhadda by itself is a common form of address in the sense “my dear”, I think the suffix -mukha has its intensive sense here, “dearest”, rather than “dear face”.

In such cases pariḷāha refers to “heat exhaustion” rather than “fever”.