The most severe of the five types of offenses a monastic can incur. A monastic who violates one of the four principal vows and thereby incurs a defeat is expelled from the saṅgha community. They are no longer entitled to participate in communal activities, nor are they entitled to enjoy its perquisites, such as food and lodging. The four are sexual intercourse, theft, murder, and claiming greater realization than one has. See also “pārājika.”

For a monk these would be breaking the vows of not killing, not stealing, celibacy, and Dharma lies.

Downfalls are actions of body, speech, and mind that cause one to fall from the path of awakening and, in the cases of root downfalls, to fall into the lower realms of existence.