Mahābhārata

M. N. Dutt: Yudhishthira said. You should, O foremnost one of Kuru's race, tell me to what kind of Brahmanas, O grandfather, should the offers made at Shraddhas, be given away.

M. N. Dutt: Bhishma said The Kshatriya who is conversant with the ordinances about gift, should never examine Brahmanas. In all matters, however, relating to the worship of the deities and the departed Manes, an examination has been said to be proper.

M. N. Dutt: The deities are adored on Earth by men only when they are filled with devotion originating from the celestials themselves. Hence, one should, approaching them, make gifts to all Brahmanas, respecting such gifts as are made to the celestial themselves.

M. N. Dutt: In Shraddhas, however, O king, the man of intelligence should examine the Brahmanas. Such examination should be about their birth, conduct, age, appearance, and learning.

M. N. Dutt: Amongst the Brahmanas there are some who pollute the line and some who purify it. Listen to me, O king, as I tell you those Brahmanas are that should be excluded from the line.

M. N. Dutt: He who is wily, or he who is guilty of foeticide, or he who is ill of consumption, or he who keeps animals, or he who has no Vedic study, or is a common servant of a village, or lives upon usury, or he who is a singer, or he who sells all articles, or he who is guilty of arson, or he who is a poisoner, or he who is a pimp by profession, or he who sells Soma, or he who teaches palmistry, or he who is in the employ of the king, or he who is a seller or oil, or he who is a cheat and false swearer, or he who has quarrel with his father, or he who tolerates a paramour of his wife, or he who has been cursed, or he who is a theif, or he who lives by some mechanical art, or he who puts on disguises, or he who is deceitful in his conduct, or he who is hostile to those he calls his friends, or he who is an adulterer, or he who is a preceptor of Shudras, or he who has taken up the profession of arms, or he who wanders with dogs (for hunting), or he who has been bit by a dog, or he who has married before his older brothers, or he who scems to have undergone circumcision, he who violates the bed of his preceptor, he who is an actor or mime, he who lives by setting up an idol, and he who lives by calculating the conjunctions of stars and planets and asterisms, are considered as fit to be excluded from the line. Persons knowing the Vedas say that the offerings made at Shraddhas, if eaten by such Brahmanas, jo to fill the stomachs of Rakshasas, O Yudhishthira.

M. N. Dutt: That person who having eaten at a Shraddha does not abstain that day from Vedic studies, or who has known that day a Shudra woman, must know that his departed Manes on account of such deeds of his, have to lie for a month on his own excreta.

M. N. Dutt: The offerings made at Shraddhas if presented to a Brahmana who sells wine, become converted into human excreta; if presented to a Brahmana who practises as a physician, they become converted into puss and blood; if presented to one who lives by setting up an idol, they fail to produce any fruit; if presented to one who lives upon usury, they lead to infamy; if presented to one who is engaged in trade, they become productive of no fruits cither in this world or in the next. If presented to a Brahmana who is born of a widowed mother, they become as fruitless as libations poured on ashes.

M. N. Dutt: They who present the Havya and Kavya to such Brahmanas who do not perform the duties ordained for them and who do not observe those rules of good conduct that persons of their order should observe, find such presents productive of no merits hereafter.

M. N. Dutt: That littlewitted man who makes gifts of such articles to such men knowing their dispositions, obliges, by such conduct, his departed Manes to eat human excreta in the next world.

M. N. Dutt: You should know that these wretched Brahmanas deserve to be excluded from the line. Those Brahmanas also of little energy who are engaged in instructing Shudras belong to the same class.

M. N. Dutt: A Brahmana who is blind stains sixty individuals of the line, one who is destitute of manly powers stains a hundred; while one who is afflicted with white leprosy stains as many as he looks upon, O king.

M. N. Dutt: Whatever offerings made at Shraddhas are eaten by one with his head wrapped round with a cloth, whatever is eaten by one with face southwards, and whatever is eaten with shoes or sandals on, all goes to please the Asuras.

M. N. Dutt: Whatever, again is given with malice, and whatever is given without respect, have been ordained by Brahman himself as the portion of the king of Asuras (viz., Bali.)

M. N. Dutt: Dogs, and such Brahmanas as are polluters of lines, should not be suffered to look upon the offerings made at Shraddhas performed at a place that is properly hedged around or concealed from the view. That spot should also be covered with sesame seeds.

M. N. Dutt: That Shraddha which is done without sesame seeds, or that which is done by a person in anger, has its Havi robbed by Rakshasas and Pishachas.

M. N. Dutt: According to the number of Brahmanas seen by one who deserves to be excluded from the line, is the loss of merit he causes of the foolish perforiner of the Shraddha who invites him to the feast.

Corresponding verse not found in M. N. Dutt's version.

M. N. Dutt: I shall now, O chief of Bharata's race, tell you who are purifiers of the line. Do you find them out by examination. All those Brahmanas who are purified by knowledge, Vedic study, vows and observances and they who are of good and righteous conduct, should be known as purifiers of everything. I shall now tell you who deserve to sit in the line. You should know them to be such whom I shall mark out presently. He who is conversant with the three Nachiketas, he who has set up the five sacrificial fires, he who knows the five Suparnas, he who knows the six branches (called Angas) of the Veda, he who is a descendant of fathers who were engaged in teaching the Vedas and is himself engaged in teaching, he who is well conversant with the Prosody, he who is acquainted with the Jeshthya Saman, he who is obedient to his parents, he who is conversant with the Vedas, and whose ancestors have been so for ten generations, he who knows only his married wives and this at their seasons, and he who has been purified by knowledge, by the Veda, and by vows and observances, even such a Brahmana, purifies the line.

M. N. Dutt: He who reads the Atharvashiras, who is given to the observance of Brahmacharya practices, and who is steady in the observance of righteous vows, who is truthful and of pure conduct, and who duly satisfies the duties laid down for his order, they also who have undergone fatigue and labour for bathing in the sacred waters, who have done the final bath after celebrating sacrifices sacrifices with proper Mantras, who are freed from anger, who are not restless, who are endued with forgiveness, who are self controlled masters of their senses, and they who are devoted to the behoof of all creatures, these should be invited to Shraddhas. arent HTATET EN: Partaga:1

Corresponding verse not found in M. N. Dutt's version.

M. N. Dutt: Anything given to these, becomes endless. These, indeed, are purifiers of lines. There are others also, highly blessed, who should be considered as purifiers of the line.

M. N. Dutt: Anything given to these, becomes endless. These, indeed, are purifiers of lines. There are others also, highly blessed, who should be considered as purifiers of the line. They are are Yatis and those who are conversant with the religion of Emancipation, and they who are devoted to Yoga and they who properly observe excellent vows, and they who, with collected mind, recite (sacred) histories to fcremost of Brahmanas. They who conversant with commentaries, they also who are given to grammatical studies, they who study the Puranas and they who study, the Dharmashastras, and having studied them act up to the standard laid down in them, he who has lived in the house of his preceptor, he who if truthful in speech, he who is a giver of thousands, they that are foremost in Vedic lore and (in the knowledge of) the scriptural and are philosophical aphorisms, these purity the lines as far they look at it. And because they purity all who sit in the line, therefore are they called purifiers of lines. Utterers of Brahma say that even a single person who happens to be the descendant of ancestors who were teachers of the Veda and who is himself a Vedic teacher, purifies full seven miles around him. If he who is not a Ritvik and that is not a Vedic teacher takes the foremost seat in a Shraddha, with even the permission of the other Ritviks there present, he is said to take the sins of all who may be sitting in the line. If, on the other hand, he happens to be conversant with the Vedas and freed from all those faults which are considered as capable of polluting the line, he shall not, o king, be considered as fallen, Such a man would then be really a purifier of the line. For these reasons, O king, you should properly examine the Brahinanas before inviting them to Shraddhas. You should invite only such among them as are devoted to the duties laid down for their order, and as are born in good families, and as are gifted with great learning.

M. N. Dutt: He who performs Shraddhas for feeding only his friends and whose Havi does not please the celestials and the departed Manes, fails to ascend to Heaven.

M. N. Dutt: He who collects his friends and relatives only on the occasion of the Shraddha he performs, fails to proceed (after death) by the celestial path. The man who converts the Shraddha he performs, into an occasion for only collecting his friends, never succeeds in ascending to Heaven. The man who converts the Shraddha into an occasion for treating his friends, becomes alienated from Heaven even like a bird dissociated from the perch when the chain tying it breaks.

Corresponding verse not found in M. N. Dutt's version.

M. N. Dutt: Therefore, he who performs a Shraddha should not honour his friends. He may make gifts of riches to them on other occasions by collecting them together. The Havi and the Kavi offered at Shraddhas should be served to them who are neither friends nor enemies but are only indifferent or neutral.

M. N. Dutt: As seed sown on a barren soil does not sprout forth, or as one who has not sown does not get a share of the produce, so that Shraddha the offerings in which are eaten by an unworthy person, yields no fruit either in this : world or in the next.

M. N. Dutt: That Brahmana who is destitute of Vedic study, is like a fire made by burning grass or straw; and becomes soon put out even like such a fire. The offerings inade at Shraddhas should not be given to him even as libations should not be poured on the ashes of the sacrificial fire.

M. N. Dutt: When the offerings made at Shraddhas are exchanged by the performers with one another, they become Pishacha presents. Such offerings please neither the gods nor the departed Manes, Instead of reaching the other world, they wander about even here like a cow which has lost her calf wandering about within the fold.

M. N. Dutt: As those libations of clarified butter that are poured upon the extinguished ashes of a sacrificial fire never reach either the gods or the departed Manes, similarly a gift that is inade to a dancer or a singer or a Dakshina presented to a lying or deceitful person, yields no merit.

M. N. Dutt: The present that is given to a lying or deceitful person destroys both the giver and the receiver without benefiting them in any way. Such a present is destructive and highly censurable. The Pitris of the person making it have to fall down form the celestial path.

M. N. Dutt: The gods know thein to he Brahmanas who always walk, O Yudhishthira, within the limits set up by the Rishis who know all duties, and who have a firm faith in their efficacy.

M. N. Dutt: Those Brahmanas who are given to Vedic study, to knowledge, to penances, and to acts, O Bharata, should be known as Rishis.

M. N. Dutt: The offerings made at Shraddhas, should be given to those who are devoted to knowledge. Indeed, they are to be considered as men who never speak ill of the Brahmanas.

M. N. Dutt: Those men should never be fed on occasions of Shraddhas who speak ill of Brahmanas in course of conversation in the midst of conclaves. If Brahmanas, O king, be vilified, they would destroy three generations of the calumniator.

M. N. Dutt: This is saying, O king, of the Vaikhanasa Rishis. Brahmanas knowing the Vedas should be examined from a distance. Whether one likes them or not, one should give to such Brahmanas the offerings made at Shraddhas. That man who feeds thousands upon thousands of unworthy Brahmanas acquires merit that is attainable by feeding even one Brahmana if the latter happens to be endued with a knowledge of the Vedas, o Bharata!