CHAPTER I.
1. The great sages approached Manu, who was seated with a
collected mind, and, having duly worshipped him, spoke as follows:
2. ‘Deign, divine one, to declare to us precisely and in
due order the sacred laws of each of the (four chief) castes
(varna) and of the intermediate ones.
3. ‘For thou, O Lord, alone knowest the purport, (i.e.) the
rites, and the knowledge of the soul, (taught) in this whole
ordinance of the Self-existent (Svayambhu), which is unknowable
and unfathomable.’
4. He, whose power is measureless, being thus asked by the
high-minded great sages, duly honoured them, and answered, ‘Listen!’
5. This (universe) existed in the shape of Darkness, unperceived,
destitute of distinctive marks, unattainable by reasoning, unknowable,
wholly immersed, as it were, in deep sleep.
6. Then the divine Self-existent (Svayambhu, himself) indiscernible,
(but) making (all) this, the great elements and the rest, discernible,
appeared with irresistible (creative) power, dispelling the
darkness.
7. He who can be perceived by the internal organ (alone),
who is subtile, indiscernible, and eternal, who contains all
created beings and is inconceivable, shone forth of his own
(will).
8. He, desiring to produce beings of many kinds from his
own body, first with a thought created the waters, and placed
his seed in them.
9. That (seed) became a golden egg, in brilliancy equal to
the sun; in that (egg) he himself was born as Brahman, the progenitor
of the whole world.
10. The waters are called narah, (for) the waters are, indeed,
the offspring of Nara; as they were his first residence (ayana),
he thence is named Narayana.
11. From that (first) cause, which is indiscernible, eternal,
and both real and unreal, was produced that male (Purusha),
who is famed in this world (under the appellation of) Brahman.
12. The divine one resided in that egg during a whole year,
then he himself by his thought (alone) divided it into two halves;
13. And out of those two halves he formed heaven and earth,
between them the middle sphere, the eight points of the horizon,
and the eternal abode of the waters.
14. From himself (atmanah) he also drew forth the mind, which
is both real and unreal, likewise from the mind egoism, which
possesses the function of self-consciousness (and is) lordly;
15. Moreover, the great one, the soul, and all (products)
affected by the three qualities, and, in their order, the five
organs which perceive the objects of sensation.
16. But, joining minute particles even of those six, which
possess measureless power, with particles of himself, he created
all beings.
17. Because those six (kinds of) minute particles, which
form the (creator’s) frame, enter (a-sri) these (creatures),
therefore the wise call his frame sarira, (the body.)
18. That the great elements enter, together with their functions
and the mind, through its minute parts the framer of all beings,
the imperishable one.
19. But from minute body (-framing) particles of these seven
very powerful Purushas springs this (world), the perishable
from the imperishable.
20. Among them each succeeding (element) acquires the quality
of the preceding one, and whatever place (in the sequence) each
of them occupies, even so many qualities it is declared to possess.
21. But in the beginning he assigned their several names,
actions, and conditions to all (created beings), even according
to the words of the Veda.
22. He, the Lord, also created the class of the gods, who
are endowed with life, and whose nature is action; and the subtile
class of the Sadhyas, and the eternal sacrifice.
23. But from fire, wind, and the sun he drew forth the threefold
eternal Veda, called Rik, Yagus, and Saman, for the due performance
of the sacrifice.
24. Time and the divisions of time, the lunar mansions and
the planets, the rivers, the oceans, the mountains, plains,
and uneven ground.
25. Austerity, speech, pleasure, desire, and anger, this
whole creation he likewise produced, as he desired to call these
beings into existence.
26. Moreover, in order to distinguish actions, he separated
merit from demerit, and he caused the creatures to be affected
by the pairs (of opposites), such as pain and pleasure.
27. But with the minute perishable particles of the five
(elements) which have been mentioned, this whole (world) is
framed in due order.
28. But to whatever course of action the Lord at first appointed
each (kind of beings), that alone it has spontaneously adopted
in each succeeding creation.
29. Whatever he assigned to each at the (first) creation,
noxiousness or harmlessness, gentleness or ferocity, virtue
or sin, truth or falsehood, that clung (afterwards) spontaneously
to it.
30. As at the change of the seasons each season of its own
accord assumes its distinctive marks, even so corporeal beings
(resume in new births) their (appointed) course of action.
31. But for the sake of the prosperity of the worlds he caused
the Brahmana, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya, and the Sudra to proceed
from his mouth, his arms, his thighs, and his feet.
32. Dividing his own body, the Lord became half male and
half female; with that (female) he produced Virag.
33. But know me, O most holy among the twice-born, to be
the creator of this whole (world), whom that male, Virag, himself
produced, having performed austerities.
34. Then I, desiring to produce created beings, performed
very difficult austerities, and (thereby) called into existence
ten great sages, lords of created beings,
35. Mariki, Atri, Angiras, Pulastya, Pulaha, Kratu, Praketas,
Vasishtha, Bhrigu, and Narada.
36. They created seven other Manus possessing great brilliancy,
gods and classes of gods and great sages of measureless power,
37. Yakshas (the servants of Kubera, the demons called) Rakshasas
and Pisakas, Gandharvas (or musicians of the gods), Apsarases
(the dancers of the gods), Asuras, (the snake-deities called)
Nagas and Sarpas, (the bird-deities called) Suparnas and the
several classes of the manes,
38. Lightnings, thunderbolts and clouds, imperfect (rohita)
and perfect rainbows, falling meteors, supernatural noises,
comets, and heavenly lights of many kinds,
39 (Horse-faced) Kinnaras, monkeys, fishes, birds of many
kinds, cattle, deer, men, and carnivorous beasts with two rows
of teeth,
40. Small and large worms and beetles, moths, lice, flies,
bugs, all stinging and biting insects and the several kinds
of immovable things.
41. Thus was this whole (creation), both the immovable and
the movable, produced by those high-minded ones by means of
austerities and at my command, (each being) according to (the
results of) its actions.
42. But whatever act is stated (to belong) to (each of) those
creatures here below, that I will truly declare to you, as well
as their order in respect to birth.
43. Cattle, deer, carnivorous beasts with two rows of teeth,
Rakshasas, Pisakas, and men are born from the womb.
44. From eggs are born birds, snakes, crocodiles, fishes,
tortoises, as well as similar terrestrial and aquatic (animals).
45. From hot moisture spring stinging and biting insects,
lice, flies, bugs, and all other (creatures) of that kind which
are produced by heat.
46. All plants, propagated by seed or by slips, grow from
shoots; annual plants (are those) which, bearing many flowers
and fruits, perish after the ripening of their fruit;
47. (Those trees) which bear fruit without flowers are called
vanaspati (lords of the forest); but those which bear both flowers
and fruit are called vriksha.
48. But the various plants with many stalks, growing from
one or several roots, the different kinds of grasses, the climbing
plants and the creepers spring all from seed or from slips.
49. These (plants) which are surrounded by multiform Darkness,
the result of their acts (in former existences), possess internal
consciousness and experience pleasure and pain.
50. The (various) conditions in this always terrible and
constantly changing circle of births and deaths to which created
beings are subject, are stated to begin with (that of) Brahman,
and to end with (that of) these (just mentioned immovable creatures).
51. When he whose power is incomprehensible, had thus produced
the universe and men, he disappeared in himself, repeatedly
suppressing one period by means of the other.
52. When that divine one wakes, then this world stirs; when
he slumbers tranquilly, then the universe sinks to sleep.
53. But when he reposes in calm sleep, the corporeal beings
whose nature is action, desist from their actions and mind becomes
inert.
54. When they are absorbed all at once in that great soul,
then he who is the soul of all beings sweetly slumbers, free
from all care and occupation.
55. When this (soul) has entered darkness, it remains for
a long time united with the organs (of sensation), but performs
not its functions; it then leaves the corporeal frame.
56. When, being clothed with minute particles (only), it
enters into vegetable or animal seed, it then assumes, united
(with the fine body), a (new) corporeal frame.
57. Thus he, the imperishable one, by (alternately) waking
and slumbering, incessantly revivifies and destroys this whole
movable and immovable (creation).
58. But he having composed these Institutes (of the sacred
law), himself taught them, according to the rule, to me alone
in the beginning; next I (taught them) to Mariki and the other
sages.
59. Bhrigu, here, will fully recite to you these Institutes;
for that sage learned the whole in its entirety from me.
60. Then that great sage Bhrigu, being thus addressed by
Manu, spoke, pleased in his heart, to all the sages, ‘Listen!’
61. Six other high-minded, very powerful Manus, who belong
to the race of this Manu, the descendant of the Self-existent
(Svayambhu), and who have severally produced created beings,
62. (Are) Svarokisha, Auttami, Tamasa, Raivata, Kakshusha,
possessing great lustre, and the son of Vivasvat.
63. These seven very glorious Manus, the first among whom
is Svayambhuva, produced and protected this whole movable and
immovable (creation), each during the period (allotted to him).
64. Eighteen nimeshas (twinklings of the eye, are one kashtha),
thirty kashthas one kala, thirty kalas one muhurta, and as many
(muhurtas) one day and night.
65. The sun divides days and nights, both human and divine,
the night (being intended) for the repose of created beings
and the day for exertion.
66. A month is a day and a night of the manes, but the division
is according to fortnights. The dark (fortnight) is their day
for active exertion, the bright (fortnight) their night for
sleep.
67. A year is a day and a night of the gods; their division
is (as follows): the half year during which the sun progresses
to the north will be the day, that during which it goes southwards
the night.
68. But hear now the brief (description of) the duration
of a night and a day of Brahman and of the several ages (of
the world, yuga) according to their order.
69. They declare that the Krita age (consists of) four thousand
years (of the gods); the twilight preceding it consists of as
many hundreds, and the twilight following it of the same number.
70. In the other three ages with their twilights preceding
and following, the thousands and hundreds are diminished by
one (in each).
71. These twelve thousand (years) which thus have been just
mentioned as the total of four (human) ages, are called one
age of the gods.
72. But know that the sum of one thousand ages of the gods
(makes) one day of Brahman, and that his night has the same
length.
73. Those (only, who) know that the holy day of Brahman,
indeed, ends after (the completion of) one thousand ages (of
the gods) and that his night lasts as long, (are really) men
acquainted with (the length of) days and nights.
74. At the end of that day and night he who was asleep, awakes
and, after awaking, creates mind, which is both real and unreal.
75. Mind, impelled by (Brahman’s) desire to create, performs
the work of creation by modifying itself, thence ether is produced;
they declare that sound is the quality of the latter.
76. But from ether, modifying itself, springs the pure, powerful
wind, the vehicle of all perfumes; that is held to possess the
quality of touch.
77. Next from wind modifying itself, proceeds the brilliant
light, which illuminates and dispels darkness; that is declared
to possess the quality of colour;
78. And from light, modifying itself, (is produced) water,
possessing the quality of taste, from water earth which has
the quality of smell; such is the creation in the beginning.
79. The before-mentioned age of the gods, (or) twelve thousand
(of their years), being multiplied by seventy-one, (constitutes
what) is here named the period of a Manu (Manvantara).
80. The Manvantaras, the creations and destructions (of the
world, are) numberless; sporting, as it were, Brahman repeats
this again and again.
81. In the Krita age Dharma is four-footed and entire, and
(so is) Truth; nor does any gain accrue to men by unrighteousness.
82. In the other (three ages), by reason of (unjust) gains
(agama), Dharma is deprived successively of one foot, and through
(the prevalence of) theft, falsehood, and fraud the merit (gained
by men) is diminished by one fourth (in each).
83. (Men are) free from disease, accomplish all their aims,
and live four hundred years in the Krita age, but in the Treta
and (in each of) the succeeding (ages) their life is lessened
by one quarter.
84. The life of mortals, mentioned in the Veda, the desired
results of sacrificial rites and the (supernatural) power of
embodied (spirits) are fruits proportioned among men according
to (the character of) the age.
85. One set of duties (is prescribed) for men in the Krita
age, different ones in the Treta and in the Dvapara, and (again)
another (set) in the Kali, in a proportion as (those) ages decrease
in length.
86. In the Krita age the chief (virtue) is declared to be
(the performance of) austerities, in the Treta (divine) knowledge,
in the Dvapara (the performance of) sacrifices, in the Kali
liberality alone.
87. But in order to protect this universe He, the most resplendent
one, assigned separate (duties and) occupations to those who
sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet.
88. To Brahmanas he assigned teaching and studying (the Veda),
sacrificing for their own benefit and for others, giving and
accepting (of alms).
89. The Kshatriya he commanded to protect the people, to
bestow gifts, to offer sacrifices, to study (the Veda), and
to abstain from attaching himself to sensual pleasures;
90. The Vaisya to tend cattle, to bestow gifts, to offer
sacrifices, to study (the Veda), to trade, to lend money, and
to cultivate land.
91. One occupation only the lord prescribed to the Sudra,
to serve meekly even these (other) three castes.
92. Man is stated to be purer above the navel (than below);
hence the Self-existent (Svayambhu) has declared the purest
(part) of him (to be) his mouth.
93. As the Brahmana sprang from (Brahman’s) mouth, as he
was the first-born, and as he possesses the Veda, he is by right
the lord of this whole creation.
94. For the Self-existent (Svayambhu), having performed austerities,
produced him first from his own mouth, in order that the offerings
might be conveyed to the gods and manes and that this universe
might be preserved.
95. What created being can surpass him, through whose mouth
the gods continually consume the sacrificial viands and the
manes the offerings to the dead?
96. Of created beings the most excellent are said to be those
which are animated; of the animated, those which subsist by
intelligence; of the intelligent, mankind; and of men, the Brahmanas;
97. Of Brahmanas, those learned (in the Veda); of the learned,
those who recognise (the necessity and the manner of performing
the prescribed duties); of those who possess this knowledge,
those who perform them; of the performers, those who know the
Brahman.
98. The very birth of a Brahmana is an eternal incarnation
of the sacred law; for he is born to (fulfil) the sacred law,
and becomes one with Brahman.
99. A Brahmana, coming into existence, is born as the highest
on earth, the lord of all created beings, for the protection
of the treasury of the law.
100. Whatever exists in the world is, the property of the
Brahmana; on account of the excellence of his origin The Brahmana
is, indeed, entitled to all.
101. The Brahmana eats but his own food, wears but his own
apparel, bestows but his own in alms; other mortals subsist
through the benevolence of the Brahmana.
102. In order to clearly settle his duties those of the other
(castes) according to their order, wise Manu sprung from the
Self-existent, composed these Institutes (of the sacred Law).
103. A learned Brahmana must carefully study them, and he
must duly instruct his pupils in them, but nobody else (shall
do it).
104. A Brahmana who studies these Institutes (and) faithfully
fulfils the duties (prescribed therein), is never tainted by
sins, arising from thoughts, words, or deeds.
105. He sanctifies any company (which he may enter), seven
ancestors and seven descendants, and he alone deserves (to possess)
this whole earth.
106. (To study) this (work) is the best means of securing
welfare, it increases understanding, it procures fame and long
life, it (leads to) supreme bliss.
107. In this (work) the sacred law has been fully stated
as well as the good and bad qualities of (human) actions and
the immemorial rule of conduct, (to be followed) by all the
four castes (varna).
108. The rule of conduct is transcendent law, whether it
be taught in the revealed texts or in the sacred tradition;
hence a twice-born man who possesses regard for himself, should
be always careful to (follow) it.
109. A Brahmana who departs from the rule of conduct, does
not reap the fruit of the Veda, but he who duly follows it,
will obtain the full reward.
110. The sages who saw that the sacred law is thus grounded
on the rule of conduct, have taken good conduct to be the most
excellent root of all austerity.
111. The creation of the universe, the rule of the sacraments,
the ordinances of studentship, and the respectful behaviour
(towards Gurus), the most excellent rule of bathing (on return
from the teacher’s house),
112. (The law of) marriage and the description of the (various)
marriage-rites, the regulations for the great sacrifices and
the eternal rule of the funeral sacrifices,
113. The description of the modes of (gaining) subsistence
and the duties of a Snataka, (the rules regarding) lawful and
forbidden food, the purification of men and of things,
114. The laws concerning women, (the law) of hermits, (the
manner of gaining) final emancipation and (of) renouncing the
world, the whole duty of a king and the manner of deciding lawsuits,
115. The rules for the examination of witnesses, the laws
concerning husband and wife, the law of (inheritance and) division,
(the law concerning) gambling and the removal of (men nocuous
like) thorns,
116. (The law concerning) the behaviour of Vaisyas and Sudras,
the origin of the mixed castes, the law for all castes in times
of distress and the law of penances,
117. The threefold course of transmigrations, the result
of (good or bad) actions, (the manner of attaining) supreme
bliss and the examination of the good and bad qualities of actions,
118. The primeval laws of countries, of castes (gati), of
families, and the rules concerning heretics and companies (of
traders and the like)- (all that) Manu has declared in these
Institutes.
119. As Manu, in reply to my questions, formerly promulgated
these Institutes, even so learn ye also the (whole work) from
me.
CHAPTER II.
1. Learn that sacred law which is followed by men learned
(in the Veda) and assented to in their hearts by the virtuous,
who are ever exempt from hatred and inordinate affection.
2. To act solely from a desire for rewards is not laudable,
yet an exemption from that desire is not (to be found) in this
(world): for on (that) desire is grounded the study of the Veda
and the performance of the actions, prescribed by the Veda.
3. The desire (for rewards), indeed, has its root in the
conception that an act can yield them, and in consequence of
(that) conception sacrifices are performed; vows and the laws
prescribing restraints are all stated to be kept through the
idea that they will bear fruit.
4. Not a single act here (below) appears ever to be done
by a man free from desire; for whatever (man) does, it is (the
result of) the impulse of desire.
5. He who persists in discharging these (prescribed duties)
in the right manner, reaches the deathless state and even in
this (life) obtains (the fulfilment of) all the desires that
he may have conceived.
6. The whole Veda is the (first) source of the sacred law,
next the tradition and the virtuous conduct of those who know
the (Veda further), also the customs of holy men, and (finally)
self-satisfaction.
7. Whatever law has been ordained for any (person) by Manu,
that has been fully declared in the Veda: for that (sage was)
omniscient.
8. But a learned man after fully scrutinising all this with
the eye of knowledge, should, in accordance with the authority
of the revealed texts, be intent on (the performance of) his
duties.
9. For that man who obeys the law prescribed in the revealed
texts and in the sacred tradition, gains fame in this (world)
and after death unsurpassable bliss.
10. But by Sruti (revelation) is meant the Veda, and by Smriti
(tradition) the Institutes of the sacred law: those two must
not be called into question in any matter, since from those
two the sacred law shone forth.
11. Every twice-born man, who, relying on the Institutes
of dialectics, treats with contempt those two sources (of the
law), must be cast out by the virtuous, as an atheist and a
scorner of the Veda.
12. The Veda, the sacred tradition, the customs of virtuous
men, and one’s own pleasure, they declare to be visibly the
fourfold means of defining the sacred law.
13. The knowledge of the sacred law is prescribed for those
who are not given to the acquisition of wealth and to the gratification
of their desires; to those who seek the knowledge of the sacred
law the supreme authority is the revelation (Sruti).
14. But when two sacred texts (Sruti) are conflicting, both
are held to be law; for both are pronounced by the wise (to
be) valid law.
15. (Thus) the (Agnihotra) sacrifice may be (optionally)
performed, at any time after the sun has risen, before he has
risen, or when neither sun nor stars are visible; that (is declared)
by Vedic texts.
16. Know that he for whom (the performance of) the ceremonies
beginning with the rite of impregnation (Garbhadhana) and ending
with the funeral rite (Antyeshti) is prescribed, while sacred
formulas are being recited, is entitled (to study) these Institutes,
but no other man whatsoever.
17. That land, created by the gods, which lies between the
two divine rivers Sarasvati and Drishadvati, the (sages) call
Brahmavarta.
18. The custom handed down in regular succession (since time
immemorial) among the (four chief) castes (varna) and the mixed
(races) of that country, is called the conduct of virtuous men.
19. The plain of the Kurus, the (country of the) Matsyas,
Pankalas, and Surasenakas, these (form), indeed, the country
of the Brahmarshis (Brahmanical sages, which ranks) immediately
after Brahmavarta.
20. From a Brahmana, born in that country, let all men on
earth learn their several usages.
21. That (country) which (lies) between the Himavat and the
Vindhya (mountains) to the east of Prayaga and to the west of
Vinasana (the place where the river Sarasvati disappears) is
called Madhyadesa (the central region).
22. But (the tract) between those two mountains (just mentioned),
which (extends) as far as the eastern and the western oceans,
the wise call Aryavarta (the country of the Aryans).
23. That land where the black antelope naturally roams, one
must know to be fit for the performance of sacrifices; (the
tract) different from that (is) the country of the Mlekkhas
(barbarians).
24. Let twice-born men seek to dwell in those (above-mentioned
countries); but a Sudra, distressed for subsistence, may reside
anywhere.
25. Thus has the origin of the sacred law been succinctly
described to you and the origin of this universe; learn (now)
the duties of the castes (varna).
26. With holy rites, prescribed by the Veda, must the ceremony
on conception and other sacraments be performed for twice-born
men, which sanctify the body and purify (from sin) in this (life)
and after death.
27. By burnt oblations during (the mother’s) pregnancy, by
the Gatakarman (the ceremony after birth), the Kauda (tonsure),
and the Maungibandhana (the tying of the sacred girdle of Munga
grass) is the taint, derived from both parents, removed from
twice-born men.
28. By the study of the Veda, by vows, by burnt oblations,
by (the recitation of) sacred texts, by the (acquisition of
the) threefold sacred science, by offering (to the gods, Rishis,
and manes), by (the procreation of) sons, by the great sacrifices,
and by (Srauta) rites this (human) body is made fit for (union
with) Brahman.
29. Before the navel-string is cut, the Gatakarman (birth-rite)
must be performed for a male (child); and while sacred formulas
are being recited, he must be fed with gold, honey, and butter.
30. But let (the father perform or) cause to be performed
the Namadheya (the rite of naming the child), on the tenth or
twelfth (day after birth), or on a lucky lunar day, in a lucky
muhurta, under an auspicious constellation.
31. Let (the first part of) a Brahmana’s name (denote something)
auspicious, a Kshatriya’s be connected with power, and a Vaisya’s
with wealth, but a Sudra’s (express something) contemptible.
32. (The second part of) a Brahmana’s (name) shall be (a
word) implying happiness, of a Kshatriya’s (a word) implying
protection, of a Vaisya’s (a term) expressive of thriving, and
of a Sudra’s (an expression) denoting service.
33. The names of women should be easy to pronounce, not imply
anything dreadful, possess a plain meaning, be pleasing and
auspicious, end in long vowels, and contain a word of benediction.
34. In the fourth month the Nishkramana (the first leaving
of the house) of the child should be performed, in the sixth
month the Annaprasana (first feeding with rice), and optionally
(any other) auspicious ceremony required by (the custom of)
the family.
35. According to the teaching of the revealed texts, the
Kudakarman (tonsure) must be performed, for the sake of spiritual
merit, by all twice-born men in the first or third year.
36. In the eighth year after conception, one should perform
the initiation (upanayana) of a Brahmana, in the eleventh after
conception (that) of a Kshatriya, but in the twelfth that of
a Vaisya.
37. (The initiation) of a Brahmana who desires proficiency
in sacred learning should take place in the fifth (year after
conception), (that) of a Kshatriya who wishes to become powerful
in the sixth, (and that) of a Vaisya who longs for (success
in his) business in the eighth.
38. The (time for the) Savitri (initiation) of a Brahmana
does not pass until the completion of the sixteenth year (after
conception), of a Kshatriya until the completion of the twenty-second,
and of a Vaisya until the completion of the twenty-fourth.
39. After those (periods men of) these three (castes) who
have not received the sacrament at the proper time, become Vratyas
(outcasts), excluded from the Savitri (initiation) and despised
by the Aryans.
40. With such men, if they have not been purified according
to the rule, let no Brahmana ever, even in times of distress,
form a connexion either through the Veda or by marriage.
41. Let students, according to the order (of their castes),
wear (as upper dresses) the skins of black antelopes, spotted
deer, and he-goats, and (lower garments) made of hemp, flax
or wool.
42. The girdle of a Brahmana shall consist of a of a triple
cord of Munga grass, smooth and soft; (that) of a Kshatriya,
of a bowstring, made of Murva fibres; (that) of a Vaisya, of
hempen threads.
43. If Munga grass (and so forth) be not procurable, (the
girdles) may be made of Kusa, Asmantaka, and Balbaga (fibres),
with a single threefold knot, or with three or five (knots according
to the custom of the family).
44. The sacrificial string of a Brahmana shall be made of
cotton, (shall be) twisted to the right, (and consist) of three
threads, that of a Kshatriya of hempen threads, (and) that of
a Vaisya of woollen threads.
45. A Brahmana shall (carry), according to the sacred law,
a staff of Bilva or Palasa; a Kshatriya, of Vata or Khadira;
(and) a Vaisya, of Pilu or Udumbara.
46. The staff of a Brahmana shall be made of such length
as to reach the end of his hair; that of a Kshatriya, to reach
his forehead;
(and) that of a Vaisya, to reach (the tip of his) nose.
47. Let all the staves be straight, without a blemish, handsome
to look at, not likely to terrify men, with their bark perfect,
unhurt by fire.
48. Having taken a staff according to his choice, having
worshipped the sun and walked round the fire, turning his right
hand towards it, (the student) should beg alms according to
the prescribed rule.
49. An initiated Brahmana should beg, beginning (his request
with the word) lady (bhavati); a Kshatriya, placing (the word)
lady in the middle, but a Vaisya, placing it at the end (of
the formula).
50. Let him first beg food of his mother, or of his sister,
or of his own maternal aunt, or of (some other) female who will
not disgrace him (by a refusal).
51. Having collected as much food as is required (from several
persons), and having announced it without guile to his teacher,
let him eat, turning his face towards the east, and having purified
himself by sipping water.
52. (His meal will procure) long life, if he eats facing
the east; fame, if he turns to the south; prosperity, if he
turns to the west; truthfulness, if he faces the east.
53. Let a twice-born man always eat his food with concentrated
mind, after performing an ablution; and after he has eaten,
let him duly cleanse himself with water and sprinkle the cavities
(of his head).
54. Let him always worship his food, and eat it without contempt;
when he sees it, let him rejoice, show a pleased face, and pray
that he may always obtain it.
55. Food, that is always worshipped, gives strength and manly
vigour; but eaten irreverently, it destroys them both.
56. Let him not give to any man what he leaves, and beware
of eating between (the two meal-times); let him not over-eat
himself, nor go anywhere without having purified himself (after
his meal).
57. Excessive eating is prejudicial to health, to fame, and
to (bliss in) heaven; it prevents (the acquisition of) spiritual
merit, and is odious among men; one ought, for these reasons,
to avoid it carefully.
58. Let a Brahmana always sip water out of the part of the
hand (tirtha) sacred to Brahman, or out of that sacred to Ka
(Pragapati), or out of (that) sacred to the gods, never out
of that sacred to the manes.
59. They call (the part) at the root of the thumb the tirtha
sacred to Brahman, that at the root of the (little) finger (the
tirtha) sacred to Ka (Pragapati), (that) at the tips (of the
fingers, the tirtha) sacred to the gods, and that below (between
the index and the thumb, the tirtha) sacred to the manes.
60. Let him first sip water thrice; next twice wipe his mouth;
and, lastly, touch with water the cavities (of the head), (the
seat of) the soul and the head.
61. He who knows the sacred law and seeks purity shall always
perform the rite of sipping with water neither hot nor frothy,
with the (prescribed) tirtha, in a lonely place, and turning
to the east or to the north.
62. A Brahmana is purified by water that reaches his heart,
a Kshatriya by water reaching his throat, a Vaisya by water
taken into his mouth, (and) a Sudra by water touched with the
extremity (of his lips).
63. A twice-born man is called upavitin when his right arm
is raised (and the sacrificial string or the dress, passed under
it, rests on the left shoulder); (when his) left (arm) is raised
(and the string, or the dress, passed under it, rests on the
right shoulder, he is called) prakinavitin; and nivitin when
it hangs down (straight) from the neck.
64. His girdle, the skin (which serves as his upper garment),
his staff, his sacrificial thread, (and) his water-pot he must
throw into water, when they have been damaged, and take others,
reciting sacred formulas.
65. (The ceremony called) Kesanta (clipping the hair) is
ordained for a Brahmana in the sixteenth year (from conception);
for a Kshatriya, in the twenty-second; and for a Vaisya, two
(years) later than that.
66. This whole series (of ceremonies) must be performed for
females (also), in order to sanctify the body, at the proper
time and in the proper order, but without (the recitation of)
sacred texts.
67. The nuptial ceremony is stated to be the Vedic sacrament
for women (and to be equal to the initiation), serving the husband
(equivalent to) the residence in (the house of the) teacher,
and the household duties (the same) as the (daily) worship of
the sacred fire.
68. Thus has been described the rule for the initiation of
the twice-born, which indicates a (new) birth, and sanctifies;
learn (now) to what duties they must afterwards apply themselves.
69. Having performed the (rite of) initiation, the teacher
must first instruct the (pupil) in (the rules of) personal purification,
of conduct, of the fire-worship, and of the twilight devotions.
70. But (a student) who is about to begin the Study (of the
Veda), shall receive instruction, after he has sipped water
in accordance with the Institutes (of the sacred law), has made
the Brahmangali, (has put on) a clean dress, and has brought
his organs under due control.
71. At the beginning and at the end of (a lesson in the)
Veda he must always clasp both the feet of his teacher, (and)
he must study, joining his hands; that is called the Brahmangali
(joining the palms for the sake of the Veda).
72. With crossed hands he must clasp (the feet) of the teacher,
and touch the left (foot) with his left (hand), the right (foot)
with his right (hand).
73. But to him who is about to begin studying, the teacher
always unwearied, must say: Ho, recite! He shall leave off (when
the teacher says): Let a stoppage take place!
74. Let him always pronounce the syllable Om at the beginning
and at the end of (a lesson in) the Veda; (for) unless the syllable
Om precede (the lesson) will slip away (from him), and unless
it follow it will fade away.
75. Seated on (blades of Kusa grass) with their points to
the east, purified by Pavitras (blades of Kusa grass), and sanctified
by three suppressions of the breath (Pranayama), he is worthy
(to pronounce) the syllable Om.
76. Pragapati (the lord of creatures) milked out (as it were)
from the three Vedas the sounds A, U, and M, and (the Vyahritis)
Bhuh, Bhuvah, Svah.
77. Moreover from the three Vedas Pragapati, who dwells in
the highest heaven (Parameshthin), milked out (as it were) that
Rik-verse, sacred to Savitri (Savitri), which begins with the
word tad, one foot from each.
78. A Brahmana, learned in the Veda, who recites during both
twilights that syllable and that (verse), preceded by the Vyahritis,
gains the (whole) merit which (the recitation of) the Vedas
confers.
79. A twice-born man who (daily) repeats those three one
thousand times outside (the village), will be freed after a
month even from great guilt, as a snake from its slough.
80. The Brahmana, the Kshatriya, and the Vaisya who neglect
(the recitation of) that Rik-verse and the timely (performance
of the) rites (prescribed for) them, will be blamed among virtuous
men.
81. Know that the three imperishable Mahavyahritis, preceded
by the syllable Om, and (followed) by the three-footed Savitri
are the portal of the Veda and the gate leading (to union with)
Brahman.
82. He who daily recites that (verse), untired, during three
years, will enter (after death) the highest Brahman, move as
free as air, and assume an ethereal form.
83. The monosyllable (Om) is the highest Brahman, (three)
suppressions of the breath are the best (form of) austerity,
but nothing surpasses the Savitri truthfulness is better than
silence.
84. All rites ordained in the Veda, burnt oblations and (other)
sacrifices, pass away; but know that the syllable (Om) is imperishable,
and (it is) Brahman, (and) the Lord of creatures (Pragapati).
85. An offering, consisting of muttered prayers, is ten times
more efficacious than a sacrifice performed according to the
rules (of the Veda); a (prayer) which is inaudible (to others)
surpasses it a hundred times, and the mental (recitation of
sacred texts) a thousand times.
86. The four Pakayagnas and those sacrifices which are enjoined
by the rules (of the Veda) are all together not equal in value
to a sixteenth part of the sacrifice consisting of muttered
prayers.
87. But, undoubtedly, a Brahmana reaches the highest goal
by muttering prayers only; (whether) he perform other (rites)
or neglect them, he who befriends (all creatures) is declared
(to be) a (true) Brahmana.
88. A wise man should strive to restrain his organs which
run wild among alluring sensual objects, like a charioteer his
horses.
89. Those eleven organs which former sages have named, I
will properly (and) precisely enumerate in due order,
90. (Viz.) the ear, the skin, the eyes, the tongue, and the
nose as the fifth, the anus, the organ of generation, hands
and feet, and the (organ of) speech, named as the tenth.
91. Five of them, the ear and the rest according to their
order, they call organs of sense, and five of them, the anus
and the rest, organs of action.
92. Know that the internal organ (manas) is the eleventh,
which by its quality belongs to both (sets); when that has been
subdued, both those sets of five have been conquered.
93. Through the attachment of his organs (to sensual pleasure)
a man doubtlessly will incur guilt; but if he keep them under
complete control, he will obtain success (in gaining all his
aims).
94. Desire is never extinguished by the enjoyment of desired
objects; it only grows stronger like a fire (fed) with clarified
butter.
95. If one man should obtain all those (sensual enjoyments)
and another should renounce them all, the renunciation of all
pleasure is far better than the attainment of them.
96. Those (organs) which are strongly attached to sensual
pleasures, cannot so effectually be restrained by abstinence
(from enjoyments) as by a constant (pursuit of true) knowledge.
97. Neither (the study of) the Vedas, nor liberality, nor
sacrifices, nor any (self-imposed) restraint, nor austerities,
ever procure the attainment (of rewards) to a man whose heart
is contaminated (by sensuality).
98. That man may be considered to have (really) subdued his
organs, who on hearing and touching and seeing, on tasting and
smelling (anything) neither rejoices nor repines.
99. But when one among all the organs slips away (from control),
thereby (man’s) wisdom slips away from him, even as the water
(flows) through the one (open) foot of a (water-carrier’s) skin.
100. If he keeps all the (ten) organs as well as the mind
in subjection, he may gain all his aims, without reducing his
body by (the practice) of Yoga.
101. Let him stand during the morning twilight, muttering
the Savitri until the sun appears, but (let him recite it),
seated, in the evening until the constellations can be seen
distinctly.
102. He who stands during the morning twilight muttering
(the Savitri), removes the guilt contracted during the (previous)
night; but he who (recites it), seated, in the evening, destroys
the sin he committed during the day.
103. But he who does not (worship) standing in the morning,
nor sitting in the evening, shall be excluded, just like a Sudra,
from all the duties and rights of an Aryan.
104. He who (desires to) perform the ceremony (of the) daily
(recitation), may even recite the Savitri near water, retiring
into the forest, controlling his organs and concentrating his
mind.
105. Both when (one studies) the supplementary treatises
of the Veda, and when (one recites) the daily portion of the
Veda, no regard need be paid to forbidden days, likewise when
(one repeats) the sacred texts required for a burnt oblation.
106. There are no forbidden days for the daily recitation,
since that is declared to be a Brahmasattra (an everlasting
sacrifice offered to Brahman); at that the Veda takes the place
of the burnt oblations, and it is meritorious (even), when (natural
phenomena, requiring) a cessation of the Veda-study, take the
place of the exclamation Vashat.
107. For him who, being pure and controlling his organs,
during a year daily recites the Veda according to the rule,
that (daily recitation) will ever cause sweet and sour milk,
clarified butter and honey to flow.
108. Let an Aryan who has been initiated, (daily) offer fuel
in the sacred fire, beg food, sleep on the ground and do what
is beneficial to this teacher, until (he performs the ceremony
of) Samavartana (on returning home).
109. According to the sacred law the (following) ten (persons,
viz.) the teacher’s son, one who desires to do service, one
who imparts knowledge, one who is intent on fulfilling the law,
one who is pure, a person connected by marriage or friendship,
one who possesses (mental) ability, one who makes presents of
money, one who is honest, and a relative, may be instructed
(in the Veda).
110. Unless one be asked, one must not explain (anything)
to anybody, nor (must one answer) a person who asks improperly;
let a wise man, though he knows (the answer), behave among men
as (if he were) an idiot.
111. Of the two persons, him who illegally explains (anything),
and him who illegally asks (a question), one (or both) will
die or incur (the other’s) enmity.
112. Where merit and wealth are not (obtained by teaching)
nor (at least) due obedience, in such (soil) sacred knowledge
must not be sown, just as good seed (must) not (be thrown) on
barren land.
113. Even in times of dire distress a teacher of the Veda
should rather die with his knowledge than sow it in barren soil.
114. Sacred Learning approached a Brahmana and said to him:
‘I am thy treasure, preserve me, deliver me not to a scorner;
so (preserved) I shall become supremely strong.’
115. ‘But deliver me, as to the keeper of thy treasure, to
a Brahmana whom thou shalt know to be pure, of subdued senses,
chaste and attentive.’
116. But he who acquires without permission the Veda from
one who recites it, incurs the guilt of stealing the Veda, and
shall sink into hell.
117. (A student) shall first reverentially salute that (teacher)
from whom he receives (knowledge), referring to worldly affairs,
to the Veda, or to the Brahman.
118. A Brahmana who completely governs himself, though he
know the Savitri only, is better than he who knows the three
Vedas, (but) does not control himself, eats all (sorts of) food,
and sells all (sorts of goods).
119. One must not sit down on a couch or seat which a superior
occupies; and he who occupies a couch or seat shall rise to
meet a (superior), and (afterwards) salute him.
120. For the vital airs of a young man mount upwards to leave
his body when an elder approaches; but by rising to meet him
and saluting he recovers them.
121. He who habitually salutes and constantly pays reverence
to the aged obtains an increase of four (things), (viz.) length
of life, knowledge, fame, (and) strength.
122. After the (word of) salutation, a Brahmana who greets
an elder must pronounce his name, saying, ‘I am N. N.’
123. To those (persons) who, when a name is pronounced, do
not understand (the meaning of) the salutation, a wise man should
say, ‘It is I;’ and (he should address) in the same manner all
women.
124. In saluting he should pronounce after his name the word
bhoh; for the sages have declared that the nature of bhoh is
the same as that of (all proper) names.
125. A Brahmana should thus be saluted in return, ‘May’st
thou be long-lived, O gentle one!’ and the vowel ‘a’ must be
added at the end of the name (of the person addressed), the
syllable preceding it being drawn out to the length of three
moras.
126. A Brahmana who does not know the form of returning a
salutation, must not be saluted by a learned man; as a Sudra,
even so is he.
127. Let him ask a Brahmana, on meeting him, after (his health,
with the word) kusala, a Kshatriya (with the word) anamaya,
a Vaisya (with the word) kshema, and a Sudra (with the word)
anarogya.
128. He who has been initiated (to perform a Srauta sacrifice)
must not be addressed by his name, even though he be a younger
man; he who knows the sacred law must use in speaking to such
(a man the particle) bhoh and (the pronoun) bhavat (your worship).
129. But to a female who is the wife of another man, and
not a blood-relation, he must say, ‘Lady’ (bhavati) or ‘Beloved
sister!’
130. To his maternal and paternal uncles, fathers-in-law,
officiating priests, (and other) venerable persons, he must
say, ‘I am N. N.,’ and rise (to meet them), even though they
be younger (than himself).
131. A maternal aunt, the wife of a maternal uncle, a mother-in-law,
and a paternal aunt must be honoured like the wife of one’s
teacher; they are equal to the wife of one’s teacher.
132. (The feet of the) wife of one’s brother, if she be of
the same caste (varna), must be clasped every day; but (the
feet of) wives of (other) paternal and maternal relatives need
only be embraced on one’s return from a journey.
133. Towards a sister of one’s father and of one’s mother,
and towards one’s own elder sister, one must behave as towards
one’s mother; (but) the mother is more venerable than they.
134. Fellow-citizens are called friends (and equals though
one be) ten years (older than the other), men practising (the
same) fine art (though one be) five years (older than the other),
Srotriyas (though) three years (intervene between their ages),
but blood-relations only (if the) difference of age be very
small.
135. Know that a Brahmana of ten years and Kshatriya of a
hundred years stand to each other in the relation of father
and son; but between those two the Brahmana is the father.
136. Wealth, kindred, age, (the due performance of) rites,
and, fifthly, sacred learning are titles to respect; but each
later-named (cause) is more weighty (than the preceding ones).
137. Whatever man of the three (highest) castes possesses
most of those five, both in number and degree, that man is worthy
of honour among them; and (so is) also a Sudra who has entered
the tenth (decade of his life).
138. Way must be made for a man in a carriage, for one who
is above ninety years old, for one diseased, for the carrier
of a burden, for a woman, for a Snataka, for the king, and for
a bridegroom.
139. Among all those, if they meet (at one time), a Snataka
and the king must be (most) honoured; and if the king and a
Snataka (meet), the latter receives respect from the king.
140. They call that Brahmana who initiates a pupil and teaches
him the Veda together with the Kalpa and the Rahasyas, the teacher
(akarya, of the latter).
141. But he who for his livelihood teaches a portion only
of the Veda, or also the Angas of the Veda, is called the sub-teacher
(upadhyaya).
142. That Brahmana, who performs in accordance with the rules
(of the Veda) the rites, the Garbhadhana (conception-rite),
and so forth, and gives food (to the child), is called the Guru
(the venerable one).
143. He who, being (duly) chosen (for the purpose), performs
the Agnyadheya, the Pakayagnas, (and) the (Srauta) sacrifices,
such as the Agnishtoma (for another man), is called (his) officiating
priest.
144. That (man) who truthfully fills both his ears with the
Veda, (the pupil) shall consider as his father and mother; he
must never offend him.
145. The teacher (akarya) is ten times more venerable than
a sub-teacher (upadhyaya), the father a hundred times more than
the teacher, but the mother a thousand times more than the father.
146. Of him who gives natural birth and him who gives (the
knowledge of) the Veda, the giver of the Veda is the more venerable
father; for the birth for the sake of the Veda (ensures) eternal
(rewards) both in this (life) and after death.
147. Let him consider that (he received) a (mere animal)
existence, when his parents begat him through mutual affection,
and when he was born from the womb (of his mother).
148. But that birth which a teacher acquainted with the whole
Veda, in accordance with the law, procures for him through the
Savitri, is real, exempt from age and death.
149. (The pupil) must know that that man also who benefits
him by (instruction in) the Veda, be it little or much, is called
in these (Institutes) his Guru, in consequence of that benefit
(conferred by instruction in) the Veda.
150. That Brahmana who is the giver of the birth for the
sake of the Veda and the teacher of the prescribed duties becomes
by law the father of an aged man, even though he himself be
a child.
151. Young Kavi, the son of Angiras, taught his (relatives
who were old enough to be) fathers, and, as he excelled them
in (sacred) knowledge, he called them ‘Little sons.’
152. They, moved with resentment, asked the gods concerning
that matter, and the gods, having assembled, answered, ‘The
child has addressed you properly.’
153. ‘For (a man) destitute of (sacred) knowledge is indeed
a child, and he who teaches him the Veda is his father; for
(the sages) have always said “child” to an ignorant
man, and “father” to a teacher of the Veda.’
154. Neither through years, nor through white (hairs), nor
through wealth, nor through (powerful) kinsmen (comes greatness).
The sages have made this law, ‘He who has learnt the Veda together
with the Angas (Anukana) is (considered) great by us.’
155. The seniority of Brahmanas is from (sacred) knowledge,
that of Kshatriyas from valour, that of Vaisyas from wealth
in grain (and other goods), but that of Sudras alone from age.
156. A man is not therefore (considered) venerable because
his head is gray; him who, though young, has learned the Veda,
the gods consider to be venerable.
157. As an elephant made of wood, as an antelope made of
leather, such is an unlearned Brahmana; those three have nothing
but the names (of their kind).
158. As a eunuch is unproductive with women, as a cow with
a cow is unprolific, and as a gift made to an ignorant man yields
no reward, even so is a Brahmana useless, who (does) not (know)
the Rikas.
159. Created beings must be instructed in (what concerns)
their welfare without giving them pain, and sweet and gentle
speech must be used by (a teacher) who desires (to abide by)
the sacred law.
160. He, forsooth, whose speech and thoughts are pure and
ever perfectly guarded, gains the whole reward which is conferred
by the Vedanta.
161. Let him not, even though in pain, (speak words) cutting
(others) to the quick; let him not injure others in thought
or deed; let him not utter speeches which make (others) afraid
of him, since that will prevent him from gaining heaven.
162. A Brahmana should always fear homage as if it were poison;
and constantly desire (to suffer) scorn as (he would long for)
nectar.
163. For he who is scorned (nevertheless may) sleep with
an easy mind, awake with an easy mind, and with an easy mind
walk here among men; but the scorner utterly perishes.
164. A twice-born man who has been sanctified by the (employment
of) the means, (described above) in due order, shall gradually
and cumulatively perform the various austerities prescribed
for (those who) study the Veda.
165. An Aryan must study the whole Veda together with the
Rahasyas, performing at the same time various kinds of austerities
and the vows prescribed by the rules (of the Veda).
166. Let a Brahmana who desires to perform austerities, constantly
repeat the Veda; for the study of the Veda is declared (to be)
in this world the highest austerity for a Brahmana.
167. Verily, that twice-born man performs the highest austerity
up to the extremities of his nails, who, though wearing a garland,
daily recites the Veda in private to the utmost of his ability.
168. A twice-born man who, not having studied the Veda, applies
himself to other (and worldly study), soon falls, even while
living, to the condition of a Sudra and his descendants (after
him).
169. According to the injunction of the revealed texts the
first birth of an Aryan is from (his natural) mother, the second
(happens) on the tying of the girdle of Munga grass, and the
third on the initiation to (the performance of) a (Srauta) sacrifice.
170. Among those (three) the birth which is symbolised by
the investiture with the girdle of Munga grass, is his birth
for the sake of the Veda; they declare that in that (birth)
the Sivitri (verse) is his mother and the teacher his father.
171. They call the teacher (the pupil’s) father because he
gives the Veda; for nobody can perform a (sacred) rite before
the investiture with the girdle of Munga grass.
172. (He who has not been initiated) should not pronounce
(any) Vedic text excepting (those required for) the performance
of funeral rites, since he is on a level with a Sudra before
his birth from the Veda.
173. The (student) who has been initiated must be instructed
in the performance of the vows, and gradually learn the Veda,
observing the prescribed rules.
174. Whatever dress of skin, sacred thread, girdle, staff,
and lower garment are prescribed for a (student at the initiation),
the like (must again be used) at the (performance of the) vows.
175. But a student who resides with his teacher must observe
the following restrictive rules, duly controlling all his organs,
in order to increase his spiritual merit.
176. Every day, having bathed, and being purified, he must
offer libations of water to the gods, sages and manes, worship
(the images of) the gods, and place fuel on (the sacred fire).
177. Let him abstain from honey, meat, perfumes, garlands,
substances (used for) flavouring (food), women, all substances
turned acid, and from doing injury to living creatures.
178. From anointing (his body), applying collyrium to his
eyes, from the use of shoes and of an umbrella (or parasol),
from (sensual) desire, anger, covetousness, dancing, singing,
and playing (musical instruments),
179. From gambling, idle disputes, backbiting, and lying,
from looking at and touching women, and from hurting others.
180. Let him always sleep alone, let him never waste his
manhood; for he who voluntarily wastes his manhood, breaks his
vow.
181. A twice-born student, who has involuntarily wasted his
manly strength during sleep, must bathe, worship the sun, and
afterwards thrice mutter the Rik-verse (which begins), ‘Again
let my strength return to me.’
182. Let him fetch a pot full of water, flowers, cowdung,
earth, and Kusa grass, as much as may be required (by his teacher),
and daily go to beg food.
183. A student, being pure, shall daily bring food from the
houses of men who are not deficient in (the knowledge of) the
Veda and in (performing) sacrifices, and who are famous for
(following their lawful) occupations.
184. Let him not beg from the relatives of his teacher, nor
from his own or his mother’s blood-relations; but if there are
no houses belonging to strangers, let him go to one of those
named above, taking the last-named first;
185. Or, if there are no (virtuous men of the kind) mentioned
above, he may go to each (house in the) village, being pure
and remaining silent; but let him avoid Abhisastas (those accused
of mortal sin).
186. Having brought sacred fuel from a distance, let him
place it anywhere but on the ground, and let him, unwearied,
make with it burnt oblations to the sacred fire, both evening
and morning.
187. He who, without being sick, neglects during seven (successive)
days to go out begging, and to offer fuel in the sacred fire,
shall perform the penance of an Avakirnin (one who has broken
his vow).
188. He who performs the vow (of studentship) shall constantly
subsist on alms, (but) not eat the food of one (person only);
the subsistence of a student on begged food is declared to be
equal (in merit) to fasting.
189. At his pleasure he may eat, when invited, the food of
one man at (a rite) in honour of the gods, observing (however
the conditions on his vow, or at a (funeral meal) in honor of
the manes, behaving (however) like a hermit.
190. This duty is prescribed by the wise for a Brahmana only;
but no such duty is ordained for a Kshatriya and a Vaisya.
191. Both when ordered by his teacher, and without a (special)
command, (a student) shall always exert himself in studying
(the Veda), and in doing what is serviceable to his teacher.
192. Controlling his body, his speech, his organs (of sense),
and his mind, let him stand with joined hands, looking at the
face of his teacher.
193. Let him always keep his right arm uncovered, behave
decently and keep his body well covered, and when he is addressed
(with the words), ‘Be seated,’ he shall sit down, facing his
teacher.
194. In the presence of his teacher let him always eat less,
wear a less valuable dress and ornaments (than the former),
and let him rise earlier (from his bed), and go to rest later.
195. Let him not answer or converse with (his teacher), reclining
on a bed, nor sitting, nor eating, nor standing, nor with an
averted face.
196. Let him do (that), standing up, if (his teacher) is
seated, advancing towards him when he stands, going to meet
him if he advances, and running after him when he runs;
197. Going (round) to face (the teacher), if his face is
averted, approaching him if he stands at a distance, but bending
towards him if he lies on a bed, and if he stands in a lower
place.
198. When his teacher is nigh, let his bed or seat be low;
but within sight of his teacher he shall not sit carelessly
at ease.
199. Let him not pronounce the mere name of his teacher (without
adding an honorific title) behind his back even, and let him
not mimic his gait, speech, and deportment.
200. Wherever (people) justly censure or falsely defame his
teacher, there he must cover his ears or depart thence to another
place.
201. By censuring (his teacher), though justly, he will become
(in his next birth) an ass, by falsely defaming him, a dog;
he who lives on his teacher’s substance, will become a worm,
and he who is envious (of his merit), a (larger) insect.
202. He must not serve the (teacher by the intervention of
another) while he himself stands aloof, nor when he (himself)
is angry, nor when a woman is near; if he is seated in a carriage
or on a (raised) seat, he must descend and afterwards salute
his (teacher).
203. Let him not sit with his teacher, to the leeward or
to the windward (of him); nor let him say anything which his
teacher cannot hear.
204. He may sit with his teacher in a carriage drawn by oxen,
horses, or camels, on a terrace, on a bed of grass or leaves,
on a mat, on a rock, on a wooden bench, or in a boat.
205. If his teacher’s teacher is near, let him behave (towards
him) as towards his own teacher; but let him, unless he has
received permission from his teacher, not salute venerable persons
of his own (family).
206. This is likewise (ordained as) his constant behaviour
towards (other) instructors in science, towards his relatives
(to whom honour is due), towards all who may restrain him from
sin, or may give him salutary advice.
207. Towards his betters let him always behave as towards
his teacher, likewise towards sons of his teacher, born by wives
of equal caste, and towards the teacher’s relatives both on
the side of the father and of the mother.
208. The son of the teacher who imparts instruction (in his
father’s stead), whether younger or of equal age, or a student
of (the science of) sacrifices (or of other Angas), deserves
the same honour as the teacher.
209. (A student) must not shampoo the limbs of his teacher’s
son, nor assist him in bathing, nor eat the fragments of his
food, nor wash his feet.
210. The wives of the teacher, who belong to the same caste,
must be treated as respectfully as the teacher; but those who
belong to a different caste, must be honoured by rising and
salutation.
211. Let him not perform for a wife of his teacher (the offices
of) anointing her, assisting her in the bath, shampooing her
limbs, or arranging her hair.
212. (A pupil) who is full twenty years old, and knows what
is becoming and unbecoming, shall not salute a young wife of
his teacher (by clasping) her feet.
213. It is the nature of women to seduce men in this (world);
for that reason the wise are never unguarded in (the company
of) females.
214. For women are able to lead astray in (this) world not
only a fool, but even a learned man, and (to make) him a slave
of desire and anger.
215. One should not sit in a lonely place with one’s mother,
sister, or daughter; for the senses are powerful, and master
even a learned man.
216. But at his pleasure a young student may prostrate himself
on the ground before the young wife of a teacher, in accordance
with the rule, and say, ‘I, N. N., (worship thee, O lady).’
217. On returning from a journey he must clasp the feet of
his teacher’s wife and daily salute her (in the manner just
mentioned), remembering the duty of the virtuous.
218. As the man who digs with a spade (into the ground) obtains
water, even so an obedient (pupil) obtains the knowledge which
lies (hidden) in his teacher.
219. A (student) may either shave his head, or wear his hair
in braids, or braid one lock on the crown of his head; the sun
must never set or rise while he (lies asleep) in the village.
220. If the sun should rise or set while he is sleeping,
be it (that he offended) intentionally or unintentionally, he
shall fast during the (next) day, muttering (the Savitri).
221. For he who lies (sleeping), while the sun sets or rises,
and does not perform (that) penance, is tainted by great guilt.
222. Purified by sipping water, he shall daily worship during
both twilights with a concentrated mind in a pure place, muttering
the prescribed text according to the rule.
223. If a woman or a man of low caste perform anything (leading
to) happiness, let him diligently practise it, as well as (any
other permitted act) in which his heart finds pleasure.
224. (Some declare that) the chief good consists in (the
acquisition of) spiritual merit and wealth, (others place it)
in (the gratification of) desire and (the acquisition of) wealth,
(others) in (the acquisition of) spiritual merit alone, and
(others say that the acquisition of) wealth alone is the chief
good here (below); but the (correct) decision is that it consists
of the aggregate of (those) three.
225. The teacher, the father, the mother, and an elder brother
must not be treated with disrespect, especially by a Brahmana,
though one be grievously offended (by them).
226. The teacher is the image of Brahman, the father the
image of Pragipati (the lord of created beings), the mother
the image of the earth, and an (elder) full brother the image
of oneself.
227. That trouble (and pain) which the parents undergo on
the birth of (their) children, cannot be compensated even in
a hundred years.
228. Let him always do what is agreeable to those (two) and
always (what may please) his teacher; when those three are pleased,
he obtains all (those rewards which) austerities (yield).
229. Obedience towards those three is declared to be the
best (form of) austerity; let him not perform other meritorious
acts without their permission.
230. For they are declared to be the three worlds, they the
three (principal) orders, they the three Vedas, and they the
three sacred fires.
231. The father, forsooth, is stated to be the Garhapatya
fire, the mother the Dakshinagni, but the teacher the Ahavaniya
fire; this triad of fires is most venerable.
232. He who neglects not those three, (even after he has
become) a householder, will conquer the three worlds and, radiant
in body like a god, he will enjoy bliss in heaven.
233. By honouring his mother he gains this (nether) world,
by honouring his father the middle sphere, but by obedience
to his teacher the world of Brahman.
234. All duties have been fulfilled by him who honours those
three; but to him who honours them not, all rites remain fruitless.
235. As long as those three live, so long let him not (independently)
perform any other (meritorious acts); let him always serve them,
rejoicing (to do what is) agreeable and beneficial (to them).
236. He shall inform them of everything that with their consent
he may perform in thought, word, or deed for the sake of the
next world.
237. By (honouring) these three all that ought to be done
by man, is accomplished; that is clearly the highest duty, every
other (act) is a subordinate duty.
238. He who possesses faith may receive pure learning even
from a man of lower caste, the highest law even from the lowest,
and an excellent wife even from a base family.
239. Even from poison nectar may be taken, even from a child
good advice, even from a foe (a lesson in) good conduct, and
even from an impure (substance) gold.
240. Excellent wives, learning, (the knowledge of) the law,
(the rules of) purity, good advice, and various arts may be
acquired from anybody.
241. It is prescribed that in times of distress (a student)
may learn (the Veda) from one who is not a Brahmana; and that
he shall walk behind and serve (such a) teacher, as long as
the instruction lasts.
242. He who desires incomparable bliss (in heaven) shall
not dwell during his whole life in (the house of) a non-Brahmanical
teacher, nor with a Brahmana who does not know the whole Veda
and the Angas.
243. But if (a student) desires to pass his whole life in
the teacher’s house, he must diligently serve him, until he
is freed from this body.
244. A Brahmana who serves his teacher till the dissolution
of his body, reaches forthwith the eternal mansion of Brahman.
245. He who knows the sacred law must not present any gift
to his teacher before (the Samavartana); but when, with the
permission of his teacher, he is about to take the (final) bath,
let him procure (a present) for the venerable man according
to his ability,
246. (Viz.) a field, gold, a cow, a horse, a parasol and
shoes, a seat, grain, (even) vegetables, (and thus) give pleasure
to his teacher.
247. (A perpetual student) must, if his teacher dies, serve
his son (provided he be) endowed with good qualities, or his
widow, or his Sapinda, in the same manner as the teacher.
248. Should none of these be alive, he must serve the sacred
fire, standing (by day) and sitting (during the night), and
thus finish his life.
249. A Brahmana who thus passes his life as a student without
breaking his vow, reaches (after death) the highest abode and
will not be born again in this world.
CHAPTER III.
1. The vow (of studying) the three Vedas under a teacher
must be kept for thirty-six years, or for half that time, or
for a quarter, or until the (student) has perfectly learnt them.
2. (A student) who has studied in due order the three Vedas,
or two, or even one only, without breaking the (rules of) studentship,
shall enter the order of householders.
3. He who is famous for (the strict performance of) his duties
and has received his heritage, the Veda, from his father, shall
be honoured, sitting on a couch and adorned with a garland,
with (the present of) a cow (and the honey-mixture).
4. Having bathed, with the permission of his teacher, and
performed according to the rule the Samavartana (the rite on
returning home), a twice-born man shall marry a wife of equal
caste who is endowed with auspicious (bodily) marks.
5. A damsel who is neither a Sapinda on the mother’s side,
nor belongs to the same family on the father’s side, is recommended
to twice-born men for wedlock and conjugal union.
6. In connecting himself with a wife, let him carefully avoid
the ten following families, be they ever so great, or rich in
kine, horses, sheep, grain, or (other) property,
7. (Viz.) one which neglects the sacred rites, one in which
no male children (are born), one in which the Veda is not studied,
one (the members of) which have thick hair on the body, those
which are subject to hemorrhoids, phthisis, weakness of digestion,
epilepsy, or white or black leprosy.
8. Let him not marry a maiden (with) reddish (hair), nor
one who has a redundant member, nor one who is sickly, nor one
either with no hair (on the body) or too much, nor one who is
garrulous or has red (eyes),
9. Nor one named after a constellation, a tree, or a river,
nor one bearing the name of a low caste, or of a mountain, nor
one named after a bird, a snake, or a slave, nor one whose name
inspires terror.
10. Let him wed a female free from bodily defects, who has
an agreeable name, the (graceful) gait of a Hamsa or of an elephant,
a moderate (quantity of) hair on the body and on the head, small
teeth, and soft limbs.
11. But a prudent man should not marry (a maiden) who has
no brother, nor one whose father is not known, through fear
lest (in the former case she be made) an appointed daughter
(and in the latter) lest (he should commit) sin.
12. For the first marriage of twice-born men (wives) of equal
caste are recommended; but for those who through desire proceed
(to marry again) the following females, (chosen) according to
the (direct) order (of the castes), are most approved.
13. It is declared that a Sudra woman alone (can be) the
wife of a Sudra, she and one of his own caste (the wives) of
a Vaisya, those two and one of his own caste (the wives) of
a Kshatriya, those three and one of his own caste (the wives)
of a Brahmana.
14. A Sudra woman is not mentioned even in any (ancient)
story as the (first) wife of a Brahmana or of a Kshatriya, though
they lived in the (greatest) distress.
15. Twice-born men who, in their folly, wed wives of the
low (Sudra) caste, soon degrade their families and their children
to the state of Sudras.
16. According to Atri and to (Gautama) the son of Utathya,
he who weds a Sudra woman becomes an outcast, according to Saunaka
on the birth of a son, and according to Bhrigu he who has (male)
offspring from a (Sudra female, alone).
17. A Brahmana who takes a Sudra wife to his bed, will (after
death) sink into hell; if he begets a child by her, he will
lose the rank of a Brahmana.
18. The manes and the gods will not eat the (offerings) of
that man who performs the rites in honour of the gods, of the
manes, and of guests chiefly with a (Sudra wife’s) assistance,
and such (a man) will not go to heaven.
19. For him who drinks the moisture of a Sudra’s lips, who
is tainted by her breath, and who begets a son on her, no expiation
is prescribed.
20. Now listen to (the) brief (description of) the following
eight marriage-rites used by the four castes (varna) which partly
secure benefits and partly produce evil both in this life and
after death.
21. (They are) the rite of Brahman (Brahma), that of the
gods (Daiva), that of the Rishis (Arsha), that of Pragapati
(Pragapatya), that of the Asuras (Asura), that of the Gandharvas
(Gandharva), that of the Rhashasas (Rakshasa), and that of the
Pisakas (Paisaka).
22. Which is lawful for each caste (varna) and which are
the virtues or faults of each (rite), all this I will declare
to you, as well as their good and evil results with respect
to the offspring.
23. One may know that the first six according to the order
(followed above) are lawful for a Brahmana, the four last for
a Kshatriya, and the same four, excepting the Rakshasa rite,
for a Vaisya and a Sudra.
24. The sages state that the first four are approved (in
the case) of a Brahmana, one, the Rakshasa (rite in the case)
of a Kshatriya, and the Asura (marriage in that) of a Vaisya
and of a Sudra.
25. But in these (Institutes of the sacred law) three of
the five (last) are declared to be lawful and two unlawful;
the Paisaka and the Asura (rites) must never be used.
26. For Kshatriyas those before-mentioned two rites, the
Gandharva and the Rakshasa, whether separate or mixed, are permitted
by the sacred tradition.
27. The gift of a daughter, after decking her (with costly
garments) and honouring (her by presents of jewels), to a man
learned in the Veda and of good conduct, whom (the father) himself
invites, is called the Brahma rite.
28. The gift of a daughter who has been decked with ornaments,
to a priest who duly officiates at a sacrifice, during the course
of its performance, they call the Daiva rite.
29. When (the father) gives away his daughter according to
the rule, after receiving from the bridegroom, for (the fulfilment
of) the sacred law, a cow and a bull or two pairs, that is named
the Arsha rite.
30. The gift of a daughter (by her father) after he has addressed
(the couple) with the text, ‘May both of you perform together
your duties,’ and has shown honour (to the bridegroom), is called
in the Smriti the Pragapatya rite.
31. When (the bridegroom) receives a maiden, after having
given as much wealth as he can afford, to the kinsmen and to
the bride herself, according to his own will, that is called
the Asura rite.
32. The voluntary union of a maiden and her lover one must
know (to be) the Gandharva rite, which springs from desire and
has sexual intercourse for its purpose.
33. The forcible abduction of a maiden from her home, while
she cries out and weeps, after (her kinsmen) have been slain
or wounded and (their houses) broken open, is called the Rakshasa
rite.
34. When (a man) by stealth seduces a girl who is sleeping,
intoxicated, or disordered in intellect, that is the eighth,
the most base and sinful rite of the Pisakas.
35. The gift of daughters among Brahmanas is most approved,
(if it is preceded) by (a libation of) water; but in the case
of other castes (it may be performed) by (the expression of)
mutual consent.
36. Listen now to me, ye Brahmanas, while I fully declare
what quality has been ascribed by Manu to each of these marriage-rites.
37. The son of a wife wedded according to the Brahma rite,
if he performs meritorious acts, liberates from sin ten ancestors,
ten descendants and himself as the twenty-first.
38. The son born of a wife, wedded according to the Daiva
rite, likewise (saves) seven ancestors and seven descendants,
the son of a wife married by the Arsha rite three (in the ascending
and descending lines), and the son of a wife married by the
rite of Ka (Pragapati) six (in either line).
39. From the four marriages, (enumerated) successively, which
begin with the Brahma rite spring sons, radiant with knowledge
of the Veda and honoured by the Sishtas (good men).
40. Endowded with the qualities of beauty and goodness, possessing
wealth and fame, obtaining as many enjoyments as they desire
and being most righteous, they will live a hundred years.
41. But from the remaining (four) blamable marriages spring
sons who are cruel and speakers of untruth, who hate the Veda
and the sacred law.
42. In the blameless marriages blameless children are born
to men, in blamable (marriages) blamable (offspring); one should
therefore avoid the blamable (forms of marriage).
43. The ceremony of joining the hands is prescribed for (marriages
with) women of equal caste (varna); know that the following
rule (applies) to weddings with females of a different caste
(varna).
44. On marrying a man of a higher caste a Kshatriya bride
must take hold of an arrow, a Vaisya bride of a goad, and a
Sudra female of the hem of the (bridegroom’s) garment.
45. Let (the husband) approach his wife in due season, being
constantly satisfied with her (alone); he may also, being intent
on pleasing her, approach her with a desire for conjugal union
(on any day) excepting the Parvans.
46. Sixteen (days and) nights (in each month), including
four days which differ from the rest and are censured by the
virtuous, (are called) the natural season of women.
47. But among these the first four, the eleventh and the
thirteenth are (declared to be) forbidden; the remaining nights
are recommended.
48. On the even nights sons are conceived and daughters on
the uneven ones; hence a man who desires to have sons should
approach his wife in due season on the even (nights).
49. A male child is produced by a greater quantity of male
seed, a female child by the prevalence of the female; if (both
are) equal, a hermaphrodite or a boy and a girl; if (both are)
weak or deficient in quantity, a failure of conception (results).
50. He who avoids women on the six forbidden nights and on
eight others, is (equal in chastity to) a student, in whichever
order he may live.
51. No father who knows (the law) must take even the smallest
gratuity for his daughter; for a man who, through avarice, takes
a gratuity, is a seller of his offspring.
52. But those (male) relations who, in their folly, live
on the separate property of women, (e.g. appropriate) the beasts
of burden, carriages, and clothes of women, commit sin and will
sink into hell.
53. Some call the cow and the bull (given) at an Arsha wedding
‘a gratuity;’ (but) that is wrong, since (the acceptance of)
a fee, be it small or great, is a sale (of the daughter).
54. When the relatives do not appropriate (for their use)
the gratuity (given), it is not a sale; (in that case) the (gift)
is only a token of respect and of kindness towards the maidens.
55. Women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers,
brothers, husbands, and brothers-in-law, who desire (their own)
welfare.
56. Where women are honoured, there the gods are pleased;
but where they are not honoured, no sacred rite yields rewards.
57. Where the female relations live in grief, the family
soon wholly perishes; but that family where they are not unhappy
ever prospers.
58. The houses on which female relations, not being duly
honoured, pronounce a curse, perish completely, as if destroyed
by magic.
59. Hence men who seek (their own) welfare, should always
honour women on holidays and festivals with (gifts of) ornaments,
clothes, and (dainty) food.
60. In that family, where the husband is pleased with his
wife and the wife with her husband, happiness will assuredly
be lasting.
61. For if the wife is not radiant with beauty, she will
not attract her husband; but if she has no attractions for him,
no children will be born.
62. If the wife is radiant with beauty, the whole house is
bright; but if she is destitute of beauty, all will appear dismal.
63. By low marriages, by omitting (the performance of) sacred
rites, by neglecting the study of the Veda, and by irreverence
towards Brahmanas, (great) families sink low.
64. By (practising) handicrafts, by pecuniary transactions,
by (begetting) children on Sudra females only, by (trading in)
cows, horses, and carriages, by (the pursuit of) agriculture
and by taking service under a king,
65. By sacrificing for men unworthy to offer sacrifices and
by denying (the future rewards for good) works, families, deficient
in the (knowledge of the) Veda, quickly perish.
66. But families that are rich in the knowledge of the Veda,
though possessing little wealth, are numbered among the great,
and acquire great fame.
67. With the sacred fire, kindled at the wedding, a householder
shall perform according to the law the domestic ceremonies and
the five (great) sacrifices, and (with that) he shall daily
cook his food.
68. A householder has five slaughter-houses (as it were,
viz.) the hearth, the grinding-stone, the broom, the pestle
and mortar, the water-vessel, by using which he is bound (with
the fetters of sin).
69. In order to successively expiate (the offences committed
by means) of all these (five) the great sages have prescribed
for householders the daily (performance of the five) great sacrifices.
70. Teaching (and studying) is the sacrifice (offered) to
Brahman, the (offerings of water and food called) Tarpana the
sacrifice to the manes, the burnt oblation the sacrifice offered
to the gods, the Bali offering that offered to the Bhutas, and
the hospitable reception of guests the offering to men.
71. He who neglects not these five great sacrifices, while
he is able (to perform them), is not tainted by the sins (committed)
in the five places of slaughter, though he constantly lives
in the (order of) house (-holders).
72. But he who does not feed these five, the gods, his guests,
those whom he is bound to maintain, the manes, and himself,
lives not, though he breathes.
73. They call (these) five sacrifices also, Ahuta, Huta,
Prahuta, Brahmya-huta, and Prasita.
74. Ahuta (not offered in the fire) is the muttering (of
Vedic texts), Huta the burnt oblation (offered to the gods),
Prahuta (offered by scattering it on the ground) the Bali offering
given to the Bhutas, Brahmya-huta (offered in the digestive
fire of Brahmanas), the respectful reception of Brahmana (guests),
and Prasita (eaten) the (daily oblation to the manes, called)
Tarpana.
75. Let (every man) in this (second order, at least) daily
apply himself to the private recitation of the Veda, and also
to the performance of the offering to the gods; for he who is
diligent in the performance of sacrifices, supports both the
movable and the immovable creation.
76. An oblation duly thrown into the fire, reaches the sun;
from the sun comes rain, from rain food, therefrom the living
creatures (derive their subsistence).
77. As all living creatures subsist by receiving support
from air, even so (the members of) all orders subsist by receiving
support from the householder.
78. Because men of the three (other) orders are daily supported
by the householder with (gifts of) sacred knowledge and food,
therefore (the order of) householders is the most excellent
order.
79. (The duties of) this order, which cannot be practised
by men with weak organs, must be carefully observed by him who
desires imperishable (bliss in) heaven, and constant happiness
in this (life).
80. The sages, the manes, the gods, the Bhutas, and guests
ask the householders (for offerings and gifts); hence he who
knows (the law), must give to them (what is due to each).
81. Let him worship, according to the rule, the sages by
the private recitation of the Veda, the gods by burnt oblations,
the manes by funeral offerings (Sraddha), men by (gifts of)
food, and the Bhutas by the Bali offering.
82. Let him daily perform a funeral sacrifice with food,
or with water, or also with milk, roots, and fruits, and (thus)
please the manes.
83. Let him feed even one Brahmana in honour of the manes
at (the Sraddha), which belongs to the five great sacrifices;
but let him not feed on that (occasion) any Brahmana on account
of the Vaisvadeva offering.
84. A Brahmana shall offer according to the rule (of his
Grihya-sutra a portion) of the cooked food destined for the
Vaisvadeva in the sacred domestic fire to the following deities:
85. First to Agni, and (next) to Soma, then to both these
gods conjointly, further to all the gods (Visve Devah), and
(then) to Dhanvantari,
86. Further to Kuhu (the goddess of the new-moon day), to
Anumati (the goddess of the full-moon day), to Pragapati (the
lord of creatures), to heaven and earth conjointly, and finally
to Agni Svishtakrit (the fire which performs the sacrifice well).
87. After having thus duly offered the sacrificial food,
let him throw Bali offerings in all directions of the compass,
proceeding (from the east) to the south, to Indra, Yama, Varuna,
and Soma, as well as to the servants (of these deities).
88. Saying, ‘(Adoration) to the Maruts,’ he shall scatter
(some food) near the door, and (some) in water, saying, ‘(Adoration
to the waters;’ he shall throw (some) on the pestle and the
mortar, speaking thus, ‘(Adoration) to the trees.’
89. Near the head (of the bed) he shall make an offering
to Sri (fortune), and near the foot (of his bed) to Bhadrakali;
in the centre of the house let him place a Bali for Brahman
and for Vastoshpati (the lord of the dwelling) conjointly.
90. Let him throw up into the air a Bali for all the gods,
and (in the day-time one) for the goblins roaming about by day,
(and in the evening one) for the goblins that walk at night.
91. In the upper story let him offer a Bali to Sarvatmabhuti;
but let him throw what remains (from these offerings) in a southerly
direction for the manes.
92. Let him gently place on the ground (some food) for dogs,
outcasts, Kandalas (Svapak), those afflicted with diseases that
are punishments of former sins, crows, and insects.
93. That Brahmana who thus daily honours all beings, goes,
endowed with a resplendent body, by a straight road to the highest
dwelling-place (i.e. Brahman).
94. Having performed this Bali offering, he shall first feed
his guest and, according to the rule, give alms to an ascetic
(and) to a student.
95. A twice-born householder gains, by giving alms, the same
reward for his meritorious act which (a student) obtains for
presenting, in accordance with the rule, a cow to his teacher.
96. Let him give, in accordance with the rule, to a Brahmana
who knows the true meaning of the Veda, even (a small portion
of food as) alms, or a pot full of water, having garnished (the
food with seasoning, or the pot with flowers and fruit).
97. The oblations to gods and manes, made by men ignorant
(of the law of gifts), are lost, if the givers in their folly
present (shares of them) to Brahmanas who are mere ashes.
98. An offering made in the mouth-fire of Brahmanas rich
in sacred learning and austerities, saves from misfortune and
from great guilt.
99. But let him offer, in accordance with the rule, to a
guest who has come (of his own accord) a seat and water, as
well as food, garnished (with seasoning), according to his ability.
100. A Brahmana who stays unhonoured (in the house), takes
away (with him) all the spiritual merit even of a man who subsists
by gleaning ears of corn, or offers oblations in five fires.
101. Grass, room (for resting), water, and fourthly a kind
word; these (things) never fail in the houses of good men.
102. But a Brahmana who stays one night only is declared
to be a guest (atithi); for because he stays (sthita) not long
(anityam), he is called atithi (a guest).
103. One must not consider as a guest a Brahmana who dwells
in the same village, nor one who seeks his livelihood by social
intercourse, even though he has come to a house where (there
is) a wife, and where sacred fires (are kept).
104. Those foolish householders who constantly seek (to live
on) the food of others, become, in consequence of that (baseness),
after death the cattle of those who give them food.
105. A guest who is sent by the (setting) sun in the evening,
must not be driven away by a householder; whether he have come
at (supper-) time or at an inopportune moment, he must not stay
in the house without entertainment.
106. Let him not eat any (dainty) food which he does not
offer to his guest; the hospitable reception of guests procures
wealth, fame, long life, and heavenly bliss.
107. Let him offer (to his guests) seats, rooms, beds, attendance
on departure and honour (while they stay), to the most distinguished
in the best form, to the lower ones in a lower form, to equals
in an equal manner.
108. But if another guest comes after the Vaisvadeva offering
has been finished, (the householder) must give him food according
to his ability, (but) not repeat the Bali offering.
109. A Brahmana shall not name his family and (Vedic) gotra
in order to obtain a meal; for he who boasts of them for the
sake of a meal, is called by the wise a foul feeder (vantasin).
110. But a Kshatriya (who comes) to the house of a Brahmana
is not called a guest (atithi), nor a Vaisya, nor a Sudra, nor
a personal friend, nor a relative, nor the teacher.
111. But if a Kshatriya comes to the house of a Brahmana
in the manner of a guest, (the house-holder) may feed him according
to his desire, after the above-mentioned Brahmanas have eaten.
112. Even a Vaisya and a Sudra who have approached his house
in the manner of guests, he may allow to eat with his servants,
showing (thereby) his compassionate disposition.
113. Even to others, personal friends and so forth, who have
come to his house out of affection, he may give food, garnished
(with seasoning) according to his ability, (at the same time)
with his wife.
114. Without hesitation he may give food, even before his
guests, to the following persons, (viz.) to newly-married women,
to infants, to the sick, and to pregnant women.
115. But the foolish man who eats first without having given
food to these (persons) does, while he crams, not know that
(after death) he himself will be devoured by dogs and vultures.
116. After the Brahmanas, the kinsmen, and the servants have
dined, the householder and his wife may afterwards eat what
remains.
117. Having honoured the gods, the sages, men, the manes,
and the guardian deities of the house, the householder shall
eat afterwards what remains.
118. He who prepares food for himself (alone), eats nothing
but sin; for it is ordained that the food which remains after
(the performance of) the sacrifices shall be the meal of virtuous
men.
119. Let him honour with the honey-mixture a king, an officiating
priest, a Snataka, the teacher, a son-in-law, a father-in-law,
and a maternal uncle, (if they come) again after a full year
(has elapsed since their last visit).
120. A king and a Srotriya, who come on the performance of
a sacrifice, must be honoured with the honey-mixture, but not
if no sacrifice is being performed; that is a settled rule.
121. But the wife shall offer in the evening (a portion)
of the dressed food as a Bali-oblation, without (the recitation
of) sacred formulas; for that (rite which is called the) Vaisvadeva
is prescribed both for the morning and the evening.
122. After performing the Pitriyagna, a Brahmana who keeps
a sacred fire shall offer, month by month, on the new-moon day,
the funeral sacrifice (Sraddha, called) Pindanvaharyaka.
123. The wise call the monthly funeral offering to the manes
Anvaharya (to be offered after the cakes), and that must be
carefully performed with the approved (sorts of) flesh (mentioned
below).
124. I will fully declare what and how many (Brahmanas) must
be fed on that (occasion), who must be avoided, and on what
kinds of food (they shall dine).
125. One must feed two (Brahmanas) at the offering to the
gods, and three at the offering to the manes, or one only on
either occasion; even a very wealthy man shall not be anxious
(to entertain) a large company.
126. A large company destroys these five (advantages) the
respectful treatment (of the invited, the propriety of) place
and time, purity and (the selection of) virtuous Brahmana (guests);
he therefore shall not seek (to entertain) a large company.
127. Famed is this rite for the dead, called (the sacrifice
sacred to the manes (and performed) on the new-moon day; if
a man is diligent in (performing) that, (the reward of) the
rite for the dead, which is performed according to Smarta rules,
reaches him constantly.
128. Oblations to the gods and manes must be presented by
the givers to a Srotriya alone; what is given to such a most
worthy Brahmana yields great reward.
129. Let him feed even one learned man at (the sacrifice)
to the gods, and one at (the sacrifice) to the manes; (thus)
he will gain a rich reward, not (if he entertains) many who
are unacquainted with the Veda.
130. Let him make inquiries even regarding the remote (ancestors
of) a Brahmana who has studied an entire (recension of the)
Veda;
(if descended from a virtuous race) such a man is a worthy
recipient of gifts (consisting) of food offered to the gods
or to the manes, he is declared (to procure as great rewards
as) a guest (atithi).
131. Though a million of men, unaquainted with the Rikas,
were to dine at a (funeral sacrifice), yet a single man, learned
in the Veda, who is satisfied (with his entertainment), is worth
them all as far as the (production of) spiritual merit (is concerned).
132. Food sacred to the manes or to the gods must be given
to a man distinguished by sacred knowledge; for hands, smeared
with blood, cannot be cleansed with blood.
133. As many mouthfuls as an ignorant man swallows at a sacrifice
to the gods or to the manes, so many red-hot spikes, spears,
and iron balls must (the giver of the repast) swallow after
death.
134. Some Brahmanas are devoted to (the pursuit of) knowledge,
and others to (the performance of) austerities; some to austerities
and to the recitation of the Veda, and others to (the performance
of) sacred rites.
135. Oblations to the manes ought to be carefully presented
to those devoted to knowledge, but offerings to the gods, in
accordance with the reason (of the sacred law), to (men of)
all the four (above-mentioned classes).
136. If there is a father ignorant of the sacred texts whose
son has learned one whole recension of the Veda and the Angas,
and a son ignorant of the sacred texts whose father knows an
entire recension of the Veda and the Angas,
137. Know that he whose father knows the Veda, is the more
venerable one (of the two); yet the other one is worthy of honour,
because respect is due to the Veda (which he has learned).
138. Let him not entertain a personal friend at a funeral
sacrifice; he may gain his affection by (other) valuable gifts;
let him feed at a Sraddha a Brahmana whom he considers neither
as a foe nor as a friend.
139. He who performs funeral sacrifices and offerings to
the gods chiefly for the sake of (gaining) friends, reaps after
death no reward for Sraddhas and sacrifices.
140. That meanest among twice-born men who in his folly contracts
friendships through a funeral sacrifice, loses heaven, because
he performed a Sraddha for the sake of friendship.
141. A gift (of food) by twice-born men, consumed with (friends
and relatives), is said to be offered to the Pisakas; it remains
in this (world) alone like a blind cow in one stable.
142. As a husbandman reaps no harvest when he has sown the
seed in barren soil, even so the giver of sacrificial food gains
no reward if he presented it to a man unacquainted with the
Rikas.
143. But a present made in accordance with the rules to a
learned man, makes the giver and the recipient partakers of
rewards both in this (life) and after death.
144. (If no learned Brahmana be at hand), he may rather honour
a (virtuous) friend than an enemy, though the latter may be
qualified (by learning and so forth); for sacrificial food,
eaten by a foe, bears no reward after death.
145. Let him (take) pains (to) feed at a Sraddha an adherent
of the Rig-veda who has studied one entire (recension of that)
Veda, or a follower of the Yagur-veda who has finished one Sakha,
or a singer of Samans who (likewise) has completed (the study
of an entire recension).
146. If one of these three dines, duly honoured, at a funeral
sacrifice, the ancestors of him (who gives the feast), as far
as the seventh person, will be satisfied for a very long time.
147. This is the chief rule (to be followed) in offering
sacrifices to the gods and manes; know that the virtuous always
observe the following subsidiary rule.
148. One may also entertain (on such occasions) one’s maternal
grandfather, a maternal uncle, a sister’s son, a father-in-law,
one’s teacher, a daughter’s son, a daughter’s husband, a cognate
kinsman, one’s own officiating priest or a man for whom one
offers sacrifices.
149. For a rite sacred to the gods, he who knows the law
will not make (too close) inquiries regarding an (invited) Brahmana;
but when one performs a ceremony in honour of the manes, one
must carefully examine (the qualities and parentage of the guest).
150. Manu has declared that those Brahmanas who are thieves,
outcasts, eunuchs, or atheists are unworthy (to partake) of
oblations to the gods and manes.
151. Let him not entertain at a Sraddha one who wears his
hair in braids (a student), one who has not studied (the Veda),
one afflicted with a skin-disease, a gambler, nor those who
sacrifice for a multitude (of sacrificers).
152. Physicians, temple-priests, sellers of meat, and those
who subsist by shop-keeping must be avoided at sacrifices offered
to the gods and to the manes.
153. A paid servant of a village or of a king, man with deformed
nails or black teeth, one who opposes his teacher, one who has
forsaken the sacred fire, and a usurer;
154. One suffering from consumption, one who subsists by
tending cattle, a younger brother who marries or kindles the
sacred fire before the elder, one who neglects the five great
sacrifices, an enemy of the Brahmana race, an elder brother
who marries or kindles the sacred fire after the younger, and
one who belongs to a company or corporation,
155. An actor or singer, one who has broken the vow of studentship,
one whose (only or first) wife is a Sudra female, the son of
a remarried woman, a one-eyed man, and he in whose house a paramour
of his wife (resides);
156. He who teaches for a stipulated fee and he who is taught
on that condition, he who instructs Sudra pupils and he whose
teacher is a Sudra, he who speaks rudely, the son of an adulteress,
and the son of a widow,
157. He who forsakes his mother, his father, or a teacher
without a (sufficient) reason, he who has contracted an alliance
with outcasts either through the Veda or through a marriage,
158. An incendiary, a prisoner, he who eats the food given
by the son of an adulteress, a seller of Soma, he who undertakes
voyages by sea, a bard, an oil-man, a suborner to perjury,
159. He who wrangles or goes to law with his father, the
keeper of a gambling-house, a drunkard, he who is afflicted
with a disease (in punishment of former) crimes, he who is accused
of a mortal sin, a hypocrite, a seller of substances used for
flavouring food,
160. A maker of bows and of arrows, he who lasciviously dallies
with a brother’s widow, the betrayer of a friend, one who subsists
by gambling, he who learns (the Veda) from his son,
161. An epileptic man, who suffers from scrofulous swellings
of the glands, one afflicted with white leprosy, an informer,
a madman, a blind man, and he who cavils at the Veda must (all)
be avoided.
162. A trainer of elephants, oxen, horses, or camels, he
who subsists by astrology, a bird-fancier, and he who teaches
the use of arms,
163. He who diverts water-courses, and he who delights in
obstructing them, an architect, a messenger, and he who plants
trees (for money),
164. A breeder of sporting-dogs, a falconer, one who defiles
maidens, he who delights in injuring living creatures, he who
gains his subsistence from Sudras, and he who offers sacrifices
to the Ganas,
165. He who does not follow the rule of conduct, a (man destitute
of energy like a) eunuch, one who constantly asks (for favours),
he who lives by agriculture, a club-footed man, and he who is
censured by virtuous men,
166. A shepherd, a keeper of buffaloes, the husband of a
remarried woman, and a carrier of dead bodies, (all these) must
be carefully avoided.
167. A Brahmana who knows (the sacred law) should shun at
(sacrifices) both (to the gods and to the manes) these lowest
of twice-born men, whose conduct is reprehensible, and who are
unworthy (to sit) in the company (at a repast).
168. As a fire of dry grass is (unable to consume the offerings
and is quickly) extinguished, even so (is it with) an unlearned
Brahmana; sacrificial food must not be given to him, since it
(would be) offered in ashes.
169. I will fully declare what result the giver obtains after
death, if he gives food, destined for the gods or manes, to
a man who is unworthy to sit in the company.
170. The Rakshasas, indeed, consume (the food) eaten by Brahmanas
who have not fulfilled the vow of studentship, by a Parivettri
and so forth, and by other men not admissible into the company.
171. He must be considered as a Parivettri who marries or
begins the performance of the Agnihotra before his elder brother,
but the latter as a Parivitti.
172. The elder brother who marries after the younger, the
younger brother who marries before the elder, the female with
whom such a marriage is contracted, he who gives her away, and
the sacrificing priest, as the fifth, all fall into hell.
173. He who lasciviously dallies with the widow of a deceased
brother, though she be appointed (to bear a child by him) in
accordance with the sacred law, must be known to be a Didhishupati.
174. Two (kinds of) sons, a Kunda and a Golaka, are born
by wives of other men; (he who is born) while the husband lives,
will be a Kunda, and (he who is begotten) after the husband’s
death, a Golaka.
175. But those two creatures, who are born of wives of other
men, cause to the giver the loss (of the rewards), both in this
life and after death, for the food sacred to gods or manes which
has been given (to them).
176. The foolish giver (of a funeral repast) does not reap
the reward for as many worthy guests as a man, inadmissible
into company, can look on while they are feeding.
177. A blind man by his presence causes to the giver (of
the feast) the loss of the reward for ninety (guests), a one-eyed
man for sixty, one who suffers from white leprosy for a hundred,
and one punished by a (terrible) disease for a thousand.
178. The giver (of a Sraddha) loses the reward, due for such
a non-sacrificial gift, for as many Brahmanas as a (guest) who
sacrifices for Sudras may touch (during the meal) with his limbs.
179. And if a Brahmana, though learned in the Veda, accepts
through covetousness a gift from such (a man), he will quickly
perish, like a vessel of unburnt clay in water.
180 (Food) given to a seller of Soma becomes ordure, (that
given) to a physician pus and blood, but (that presented) to
a temple-priest is lost, and (that given) to a usurer finds
no place (in the world of the gods).
181. What has been given to a Brahmana who lives by trade
that is not (useful) in this world and the next, and (a present)
to a Brahmana born of a remarried woman (resembles) an oblation
thrown into ashes.
182. But the wise declare that the food which (is offered)
to other unholy, inadmissible men, enumerated above, (is turned
into) adipose secretions, blood, flesh, marrow, and bone.
183. Now hear by what chief of twice-born men a company defiled
by (the presence of) unworthy (guests) is purified, and the
full (description of) the Brahmanas who sanctify a company.
184. Those men must be considered as the sanctifiers of a
company who are most learned in all the Vedas and in all the
Angas, and who are the descendants of Srotriyas.
185. A Trinakiketa, one who keeps five sacred fires, a Trisuparna,
one who is versed in the six Angas, the son of a woman married
according to the Brahma rite, one who sings the Gyeshthasaman,
186. One who knows the meaning of the Veda, and he who expounds
it, a student, one who has given a thousand (cows), and a centenarian
must be considered as Brahmanas who sanctify a company.
187. On the day before the Sraddha-rite is performed, or
on the day when it takes place, let him invite with due respect
at least three Brahmanas, such as have been mentioned above.
188. A Brahmana who has been invited to a (rite) in honour
of the manes shall always control himself and not recite the
Veda, and he who performs the Sraddha (must act in the same
manner).
189. For the manes attend the invited Brahmanas, follow them
(when they walk) like the wind, and sit near them when they
are seated.
190. But a Brahmana who, being duly invited to a rite in
honour of the gods or of the manes, in any way breaks (the appointment),
becomes guilty (of a crime), and (in his next birth) a hog.
191. But he who, being invited to a Sraddha, dallies with
a Sudra woman, takes upon himself all the sins which the giver
(of the feast) committed.
192. The manes are primeval deities, free from anger, careful
of purity, ever chaste, averse from strife, and endowed with
great virtues.
193. Now learn fully from whom all these (manes derive) their
origin, and with what ceremonies they ought to be worshipped.
194. The (various) classes of the manes are declared to be
the sons of all those sages, Mariki and the rest, who are children
of Manu, the son of Hiranyagarbha.
195. The Somasads, the sons of Virag, are stated to be the
manes of the Sadhyas, and the Agnishvattas, the children of
Mariki, are famous in the world (as the manes) of the gods.
196. The Barhishads, born of Atri, are recorded to be (the
manes) of the Daityas, Danavas, Yakshas, Gandharvas, Snake-deities,
Rakshasas, Suparnas, and a Kimnaras,
197. The Somapas those of the Brahmanas, the Havirbhugs those
of the Kshatriyas, the Agyapas those of the Vaisyas, but the
Sukalins those of the Sudras.
198. The Somapas are the sons of Kavi (Bhrigu), the Havishmats
the children of Angiras, the Agyapas the offspring of Pulastya,
but the Sukalins (the issue) of Vasishtha.
199. One should know that (other classes), the Agnidagdhas,
the Anagnidagdhas, the Kavyas, the Barhishads, the Agnishvattas,
and the Saumyas, are (the manes) of the Brahmanas alone.
200. But know also that there exist in this (world) countless
sons and grandsons of those chief classes of manes which have
been enumerated.
201. From the sages sprang the manes, from the manes the
gods and the Danavas, but from the gods the whole world, both
the movable and the immovable in due order.
202. Even water offered with faith (to the manes) in vessels
made of silver or adorned with silver, produces endless (bliss).
203. For twice-born men the rite in honour of the manes is
more important than the rite in honour of the gods; for the
offering to the gods which precedes (the Sraddhas), has been
declared to be a means of fortifying (the latter).
204. Let him first invite a (Brahmana) in honour of the gods
as a protection for the (offering to the manes); for the Rakshasas
destroy a funeral sacrifice which is left without such a protection.
205. Let him make (the Sraddha) begin and end with (a rite)
in honour of the gods; it shall not begin and end with a (rite)
to the manes; for he who makes it begin and end with a (rite)
in honour of the manes, soon perishes together with his progeny.
206. Let him smear a pure and secluded place with cowdung,
and carefully make it sloping towards the south.
207. The manes are always pleased with offerings made in
open, naturally pure places, on the banks of rivers, and in
secluded spots.
208. The (sacrificer) shall make the (invited) Brahmanas,
who have duly performed their ablutions, sit down on separate,
prepared seats, on which blades of Kusa grass have been placed.
209. Having placed those blameless Brahmanas on their seats,
he shall honour them with fragrant garlands and perfumes, beginning
with (those who are invited in honour of) the gods.
210. Having presented to them water, sesamum grains, and
blades of Kusa grass, the Brahmana (sacrificer) shall offer
(oblations) in the sacred fire, after having received permission
(to do so) from (all) the Brahmana (guests) conjointly.
211. Having first, according to the rule, performed, as a
means of protecting (the Sraddha), oblations to Agni, to Soma,
and to Yama, let him afterwards satisfy the manes by a gift
of sacrificial food.
212. But if no (sacred) fire (is available), he shall place
(the offerings) into the hand of a Brahmana; for Brahmanas who
know the sacred texts declare, ‘What fire is, even such is a
Brahmana.’
213. They (also) call those first of twice-born men the ancient
deities of the funeral sacrifice, free from anger, easily pleased,
employed in making men prosper.
214. After he has performed (the oblations) in the fire,
(and) the whole series of ceremonies in such a manner that they
end in the south, let him sprinkle water with his right hand
on the spot (where the cakes are to be placed).
215. But having made three cakes out of the remainder of
that sacrificial food, he must, concentrating his mind and turning
towards the south, place them on (Kusa grass) exactly in the
same manner in which (he poured out the libations of) water.
216. Having offered those cakes according to the (prescribed)
rule, being pure, let him wipe the same hand with (the roots
of) those blades of Kusa grass for the sake of the (three ancestors)
who partake of the wipings (lepa).
217. Having (next) sipped water, turned round (towards the
north), and thrice slowly suppressed his breath, (the sacrificer)
who knows the sacred texts shall worship (the guardian deities
of) the six seasons and the manes.
218. Let him gently pour out the remainder of the water near
the cakes, and, with fixed attention, smell those cakes, in
the order in which they were placed (on the ground).
219. But taking successively very small portions from the
cakes, he shall make those seated Brahmana eat them, in accordance
with the rule, before (their dinner).
220. But if the (sacrificer’s) father is living, he must
offer (the cakes) to three remoter (ancestors); or he may also
feed his father at the funeral sacrifice as (one of the) Brahmana
(guests).
221. But he whose father is dead, while his grandfather lives,
shall, after pronouncing his father’s name, mention (that of)
his great-grandfather.
222. Manu has declared that either the grandfather may eat
at that Sraddha (as a guest), or (the grandson) having received
permission, may perform it, as he desires.
223. Having poured water mixed with sesamum, in which a blade
of Kusa grass has been placed, into the hands of the (guests),
he shall give (to each) that (above-mentioned) portion of the
cake, saying, ‘To those, Svadha!’
224. But carrying (the vessel) filled with food with both
hands, the (sacrificer) himself shall gently place it before
the Brahmanas, meditating on the manes.
225. The malevolent Asuras forcibly snatch away that food
which is brought without being held with both hands.
226. Let him, being pure and attentive, carefully place on
the ground the seasoning (for the rice), such as broths and
pot herbs, sweet and sour milk, and honey,
227. (As well as) various (kinds of) hard food which require
mastication, and of soft food, roots, fruits, savoury meat,
and fragrant drinks.
228. All this he shall present (to his guests), being pure
and attentive, successively invite them to partake of each (dish),
proclaiming its qualities.
229. Let him on no account drop a tear, become angry or utter
an untruth, nor let him touch the food with his foot nor violently
shake it.
230. A tear sends the (food) to the Pretas, anger to his
enemies, a falsehood to the dogs, contact with his foot to the
Rakshasas, a shaking to the sinners.
231. Whatever may please the Brahmanas, let him give without
grudging it; let him give riddles from the Veda, for that is
agreeable to the manes.
232. At a (sacrifice in honour) of the manes, he must let
(his guests) hear the Veda, the Institutes of the sacred law,
legends, tales, Puranas, and Khilas.
233. Himself being delighted, let him give delight to the
Brahmanas, cause them to partake gradually and slowly (of each
dish), and repeatedly invite (them to eat) by (offering) the
food and (praising) its qualities.
234. Let him eagerly entertain at a funeral sacrifice a daughter’s
son, though he be a student, and let him place a Nepal blanket
on the on the seat (of each guest), scattering sesamum grains
on the ground.
235. There are three means of sanctification, (to be used)
at a Sraddha, a daughter’s son, a Nepal blanket, and sesamum
grains; and they recommend three (other things) for it, cleanliness,
suppression of anger, and absence of haste.
236. All the food must be very hot, and the (guests) shall
eat in silence; (even though) asked by the giver (of the feast),
the Brahmanas shall not proclaim the qualities of the sacrificial
food.
237. As long as the food remains warm, as long as they eat
in silence, as long as the qualities of the food are not proclaimed,
so long the manes partake (of it).
238. What (a guest) eats, covering his head, what he eats
with his face turned towards the south, what he eats with sandals
on (his feet), that the Rakshasas consume.
239. A Kandala, a village pig, a cock, a dog, a menstruating
woman, and a eunuch must not look at the Brahmanas while they
eat.
240. What (any of) these sees at a burnt-oblation, at a (solemn)
gift, at a dinner (given to Brahmanas), or at any rite in honour
of the gods and manes, that produces not the intended result.
241. A boar makes (the rite) useless by inhaling the smell
(of the offerings), a cock by the air of his wings, a dog by
throwing his eye (on them), a low-caste man by touching (them).
242. If a lame man, a one-eyed man, one deficient in a limb,
or one with a redundant limb, be even the servant of the performer
(of the Sraddha), he must be removed from that place (where
the Sraddha is held).
243. To a Brahmana (householder), or to an ascetic who comes
for food, he may, with the permission of (his) Brahmana (guests),
show honour according to his ability.
244. Let him mix all the kinds of food together, sprinkle
them with water and put them, scattering them (on Kusa grass),
down on the ground in front of (his guests), when they have
finished their meal.
245. The remnant (in the dishes), and the portion scattered
on Kusa grass, shall be the share of deceased (children) who
received not the sacrament (of cremation) and of those who (unjustly)
forsook noble wives.
246. They declare the fragments which have fallen on the
ground at a (Sraddha) to the manes, to be the share of honest,
dutiful servants.
247. But before the performance of the Sapindikarana, one
must feed at the funeral sacrifice in honour of a (recently-)
deceased Aryan (one Brahmana) without (making an offering) to
the gods, and give one cake only.
248. But after the Sapindikarana of the (deceased father)
has been performed according to the sacred law, the sons must
offer the cakes with those ceremonies, (described above.)
249. The foolish man who, after having eaten a Sraddha (-dinner),
gives the leavings to a Sudra, falls headlong into the Kalasutra
hell.
250. If the partaker of a Sraddha (-dinner) enters on the
same day the bed of a Sudra female, the manes of his (ancestors)
will lie during that month in her ordure.
251. Having addressed the question, ‘Have you dined well?’
(to his guests), let him give water for sipping to them who
are satisfied, and dismiss them, after they have sipped water,
(with the words) ‘Rest either (here or at home)!’
252. The Brahmana (guests) shall then answer him, ‘Let there
be Svadha;’ for at all rites in honour of the manes the word
Svadha is the highest benison.
253. Next let him inform (his guests) who have finished their
meal, of the food which remains; with the permission of the
Brahmanas let him dispose (of that), as they may direct.
254. At a (Sraddha) in honour of the manes one must use (in
asking of the guests if they are satisfied, the word) svaditam;
at a Goshthi-sraddha, (the word) susrutam; at a Vriddhi-sraddha,
(the word) sampannam; and at (a rite) in honour of the gods,
(the word) rukitam.
255. The afternoon, Kusa grass, the due preparation of the
dwelling, sesamum grains, liberality, the careful preparation
of the food, and (the company of) distinguished Brahmanas are
true riches at all funeral sacrifices.
256. Know that Kusa grass, purificatory (texts), the morning,
sacrificial viands of all kinds, and those means of purification,
mentioned above, are blessings at a sacrifice to the gods.
257. The food eaten by hermits in the forest, milk, Soma-juice,
meat which is not prepared (with spices), and salt unprepared
by art, are called, on account of their nature, sacrificial
food.
258. Having dismissed the (invited) Brahmanas, let him, with
a concentrated mind, silent and pure, look towards the south
and ask these blessings of the manes:
259. ‘May liberal men abound with us! May (our knowledge
of) the Vedas and (our) progeny increase! May faith not forsake
us! May we have much to give (to the needy)!’
260. Having thus offered (the cakes), let him, after (the
prayer), cause a cow, a Brahmana, a goat, or the sacred fire
to consume those cakes, or let him throw them into water.
261. Some make the offering of the cakes after (the dinner);
some cause (them) to be eaten by birds or throw them into fire
or into water.
262. The (sacrificer’s) first wife, who is faithful and intent
on the worship of the manes, may eat the middle-most cake, (if
she be) desirous of bearing a son.
263. (Thus) she will bring forth a son who will be long-lived,
famous, intelligent, rich, the father of numerous offspring,
endowed with (the quality of) goodness, and righteous.
264. Having washed his hands and sipped water, let him prepare
(food) for his paternal relations and, after giving it to them
with due respect, let him feed his maternal relatives also.
265. But the remnants shall be left (where they lie) until
the Brahmanas have been dismissed; afterwards he shall perform
the (daily) domestic Bali-offering; that is a settled (rule
of the) sacred law.
266. I will now fully declare what kind of sacrificial food,
given to the manes according to the rule, will serve for a long
time or for eternity.
267. The ancestors of men are satisfied for one month with
sesamum grains, rice, barley, masha beans, water, roots, and
fruits, which have been given according to the prescribed rule,
268. Two months with fish, three months with the meat of
gazelles, four with mutton, and five indeed with the flesh of
birds,
269. Six months with the flesh of kids, seven with that of
spotted deer, eight with that of the black antelope, but nine
with that of the (deer called) Ruru,
270. Ten months they are satisfied with the meat of boars
and buffaloes, but eleven months indeed with that of hares and
tortoises,
271. One year with cow-milk and milk-rice; from the flesh
of a long-eared white he-goat their satisfaction endures twelve
years.
272. The (vegetable called) Kalasaka, (the fish called) Mahasalka,
the flesh of a rhinoceros and that of a red goat, and all kinds
of food eaten by hermits in the forest serve for an endless
time.
273. Whatever (food), mixed with honey, one gives on the
thirteenth lunar day in the rainy season under the asterism
of Maghah, that also procures endless (satisfaction).
274. ‘May such a man (the manes say) be born in our family
who will give us milk-rice, with honey and clarified butter,
on the thirteenth lunar day (of the month of Bhadrapada) and
(in the afternoon) when the shadow of an elephant falls towards
the east.’
275. Whatever (a man), full of faith, duly gives according
to the prescribed rule, that becomes in the other world a perpetual
and imperishable (gratification) for the manes.
276. The days of the dark half of the month, beginning with
the tenth, but excepting the fourteenth, are recommended for
a funeral sacrifice; (it is) not thus (with) the others.
277. He who performs it on the even (lunar) days and under
the even constellations, gains (the fulfilment of) all his wishes;
he who honours the manes on odd (lunar days) and under odd (constellations),
obtains distinguished offspring.
278. As the second half of the month is preferable to the
first half, even so the afternoon is better for (the performance
of) a funeral sacrifice than the forenoon.
279. Let him, untired, duly perform the (rites) in honour
of the manes in accordance with the prescribed rule, passing
the sacred thread over the right shoulder, proceeding from the
left to the right (and) holding Kusa grass in his hands, up
to the end (of the ceremony).
280. Let him not perform a funeral sacrifice at night, because
the (night) is declared to belong to the Rakshasas, nor in the
twilight, nor when the sun has just risen.
281. Let him offer here below a funeral sacrifice, according
to the rule given above, (at least) thrice a year, in winter,
in summer, and in the rainy season, but that which is included
among the five great sacrifices, every day.
282. The burnt-oblation, offered at a sacrifice to the manes,
must not be made in a common fire; a Brahmana who keeps a sacred
fire (shall) not (perform) a funeral sacrifice except on the
new-moon day.
283. Even when a Brahmana, after bathing, satisfies the manes
with water, he obtains thereby the whole reward for the performance
of the (daily) Sraddha.
284. They call (the manes of) fathers Vasus, (those of) grandfathers
Rudras, and (those of) great-grandfathers Adityas; thus (speaks)
the eternal Veda.
285. Let him daily partake of the vighasa and daily eat amrita
(ambrosia); but vighasa is what remains from the meal (of Brahmana
guests) and the remainder of a sacrifice (is called) amrita.
286. Thus all the ordinances relating to the five (daily
great) sacrifices have been declared to you; hear now the law
for the manner of living fit for Brahmanas.
CHAPTER IV.
1. Having dwelt with a teacher during the fourth part of
(a man’s) life, a Brahmana shall live during the second quarter
(of his existence) in his house, after he has wedded a wife.
2. A Brahmana must seek a means of subsistence which either
causes no, or at least little pain (to others), and live (by
that) except in times of distress.
3. For the purpose of gaining bare subsistence, let him accumulate
property by (following those) irreproachable occupations (which
are prescribed for) his (caste), without (unduly) fatiguing
his body.
4. He may subsist by Rita (truth), and Amrita (ambrosia),
or by Mrita (death) and by Pramrita (what causes many deaths);
or even by (the mode) called Satyanrita (a mixture of truth
and falsehood), but never by Svavritti (a dog’s mode of life).
5. By Rita shall be understood the gleaning of corn; by Amrita,
what is given unasked; by Mrita, food obtained by begging and
agriculture is declared to be Pramrita.
6. But trade and (money-lending) are Satyanrita, even by
that one may subsist. Service is called Svavritti; therefore
one should avoid it.
7. He may either possess enough to fill a granary, or a store
filling a grain-jar; or he may collect what suffices for three
days, or make no provision for the morrow.
8. Moreover, among these four Brahmana householders, each
later-(named) must be considered more distinguished, and through
his virtue to have conquered the world more completely.
9. One of these follows six occupations, another subsists
by three, one by two, but the fourth lives by the Brahmasattra.
10. He who maintains himself by picking up grains and ears
of corn, must be always intent on (the performance of) the Agnihotra,
and constantly offer those Ishtis only, which are prescribed
for the days of the conjunction and opposition (of the moon),
and for the solstices.
11. Let him never, for the sake of subsistence, follow the
ways of the world; let him live the pure, straightforward, honest
life of a Brahmana.
12. He who desires happiness must strive after a perfectly
contented disposition and control himself; for happiness has
contentment for its root, the root of unhappiness is the contrary
(disposition).
13. A Brahmana, who is a Snataka and subsists by one of the
(above-mentioned) modes of life, must discharge the (following)
duties which secure heavenly bliss, long life, and fame.
14. Let him, untired, perform daily the rites prescribed
for him in the Veda; for he who performs those according to
his ability, attains to the highest state.
15. Whether he be rich or even in distress, let him not seek
wealth through pursuits to which men cleave, nor by forbidden
occupations, nor (let him accept presents) from any (giver whosoever
he may be).
16. Let him not, out of desire (for enjoyments), attach himself
to any sensual pleasures, and let him carefully obviate an excessive
attachment to them, by (reflecting on their worthlessness in)
his heart.
17. Let him avoid all (means of acquiring) wealth which impede
the study of the Veda; (let him maintain himself) anyhow, but
study, because that (devotion to the Veda-study secures) the
realisation of his aims.
18. Let him walk here (on earth), bringing his dress, speech,
and thoughts to a conformity with his age, his occupation, his
wealth, his sacred learning, and his race.
19. Let him daily pore over those Institutes of science which
soon give increase of wisdom, those which teach the acquisition
of wealth, those which are beneficial (for other worldly concerns),
and likewise over the Nigamas which explain the Veda.
20. For the more a man completely studies the Institutes
of science, the more he fully understands (them), and his great
learning shines brightly.
21. Let him never, if he is able (to perform them), neglect
the sacrifices to the sages, to the gods, to the Bhutas, to
men, and to the manes.
22. Some men who know the ordinances for sacrificial rites,
always offer these great sacrifices in their organs (of sensation),
without any (external) effort.
23. Knowing that the (performance of the) sacrifice in their
speech and their breath yields imperishable (rewards), some
always offer their breath in their speech, and their speech
in their breath.
24. Other Brahmanas, seeing with the eye of knowledge that
the performance of those rites has knowledge for its root, always
perform them through knowledge alone.
25. A Brahmana shall always offer the Agnihotra at the beginning
or at the end of the day and of the night, and the Darsa and
Paurnamasa (Ishtis) at the end of each half-month,
26. When the old grain has been consumed the (Agrayana) Ishti
with new grain, at the end of the (three) seasons the (Katurmasya-)
sacrifices, at the solstices an animal (sacrifice), at the end
of the year Soma-offerings.
27. A Brahmana, who keeps sacred fires, shall, if he desires
to live long, not eat new grain or meat, without having offered
the (Agrayana) Ishti with new grain and an animal-(sacrifice).
28. For his fires, not being worshipped by offerings of new
grain and of an animal, seek to devour his vital spirits, (because
they are) greedy for new grain and flesh.
29. No guest must stay in his house without being honoured,
according to his ability, with a seat, food, a couch, water,
or roots and fruits.
30. Let him not honour, even by a greeting, heretics, men
who follow forbidden occupations, men who live like cats, rogues,
logicians, (arguing against the Veda,) and those who live like
herons.
31. Those who have become Snatakas after studying the Veda,
or after completing their vows, (and) householders, who are
Srotriyas, one must worship by (gifts of food) sacred to gods
and manes, but one must avoid those who are different.
32. A householder must give (as much food) as he is able
(to spare) to those who do not cook for themselves, and to all
beings one must distribute (food) without detriment (to one’s
own interest).
33. A Snataka who pines with hunger, may beg wealth of a
king, of one for whom he sacrifices, and of a pupil, but not
of others; that is a settled rule.
34. A Snataka who is able (to procure food) shall never waste
himself with hunger, nor shall he wear old or dirty clothes,
if he possesses property.
35. Keeping his hair, nails, and beard clipped, subduing
his passions by austerities, wearing white garments and (keeping
himself) pure, he shall be always engaged in studying the Veda
and (such acts as are) conducive to his welfare.
36. He shall carry a staff of bamboo, a pot full of water,
a sacred string, a bundle of Kusa grass, and (wear) two bright
golden ear-rings.
37. Let him never look at the sun, when he sets or rises,
is eclipsed or reflected in water, or stands in the middle of
the sky.
38. Let him not step over a rope to which a calf is tied,
let him not run when it rains, and let him not look at his own
image in water; that is a settled rule.
39. Let him pass by (a mound of) earth, a cow, an idol, a
Brahmana, clarified butter, honey, a crossway, and well-known
trees, turning his right hand towards them.
40. Let him, though mad with desire, not approach his wife
when her courses appear; nor let him sleep with her in the same
bed.
41. For the wisdom, the energy, the strength, the sight,
and the vitality of a man who approaches a woman covered with
menstrual excretions, utterly perish.
42. If he avoids her, while she is in that condition, his
wisdom, energy, strength, sight, and vitality will increase.
43. Let him not eat in the company of his wife, nor look
at her, while she eats, sneezes, yawns, or sits at her ease.
44. A Brahmana who desires energy must not look at (a woman)
who applies collyrium to her eyes, has anointed or uncovered
herself or brings forth (a child).
45. Let him not eat, dressed with one garment only; let him
not bathe naked; let him not void urine on a road, on ashes,
or in a cow-pen,
46. Nor on ploughed land, in water, on an altar of bricks,
on a mountain, on the ruins of a temple, nor ever on an ant-hill,
47. Nor in holes inhabited by living creatures, nor while
he walks or stands, nor on reaching the bank of a river, nor
on the top of a mountain.
48. Let him never void faeces or urine, facing the wind,
or a fire, or looking towards a Brahmana, the sun, water, or
cows.
49. He may ease himself, having covered (the ground) with
sticks, clods, leaves, grass, and the like, restraining his
speech, (keeping himself) pure, wrapping up his body, and covering
his head.
50. Let him void faeces and urine, in the daytime turning
to the north, at night turning towards the south, during the
two twilights in the same (position) as by day.
51. In the shade or in darkness a Brahmana may, both by day
and at night, do it, assuming any position he pleases; likewise
when his life is in danger.
52. The intellect of (a man) who voids urine against a fire,
the sun, the moon, in water, against a Brahmana, a cow, or the
wind, perishes.
53. Let him not blow a fire with his mouth; let him not look
at a naked woman; let him not throw any impure substance into
the fire, and let him not warm his feet at it.
54. Let him not place (fire) under (a bed or the like); nor
step over it, nor place it (when he sleeps) at the foot-(end
of his bed); let him not torment living creatures.
55. Let him not eat, nor travel, nor sleep during the twilight;
let him not scratch the ground; let him not take off his garland.
56. Let him not throw urine or faeces into the water, nor
saliva, nor (clothes) defiled by impure substances, nor any
other (impurity), nor blood, nor poisonous things.
57. Let him not sleep alone in a deserted dwelling; let him
not wake (a superior) who is sleeping; let him not converse
with a menstruating woman; nor let him go to a sacrifice, if
he is not chosen (to be officiating priest).
58. Let him keep his right arm uncovered in a place where
a sacred fire is kept, in a cow-pen, in the presence of Brahmanas,
during the private recitation of the Veda, and at meals.
59. Let him not interrupt a cow who is suckling (her calf),
nor tell anybody of it. A wise man, if he sees a rainbow in
the sky, must not point it out to anybody.
60. Let him not dwell in a village where the sacred law is
not obeyed, nor (stay) long where diseases are endemic; let
him not go alone on a journey, nor reside long on a mountain.
61. Let him not dwell in a country where the rulers are Sudras,
nor in one which is surrounded by unrighteous men, nor in one
which has become subject to heretics, nor in one swarming with
men of the lowest castes.
62. Let him not eat anything from which the oil has been
extracted; let him not be a glutton; let him not eat very early
(in the morning), nor very late (in the evening), nor (take
any food) in the evening, if he has eaten (his fill) in the
morning.
63. Let him not exert himself without a purpose; let him
not drink water out of his joined palms; let him not eat food
(placed) in his lap; let him not show (idle) curiosity.
64. Let him not dance, nor sing, nor play musical instruments,
nor slap (his limbs), nor grind his teeth, nor let him make
uncouth noises, though he be in a passion.
65. Let him never wash his feet in a vessel of white brass;
let him not eat out of a broken (earthen) dish, nor out of one
that (to judge) from its appearance (is) defiled.
66. Let him not use shoes, garments, a sacred string, ornaments,
a garland, or a water-vessel which have been used by others.
67. Let him not travel with untrained beasts of burden, nor
with (animals) that are tormented by hunger or disease, or whose
horns, eyes, and hoofs have been injured, or whose tails have
been disfigured.
68. Let him always travel with (beasts) which are well broken
in, swift, endowed with lucky marks, and perfect in colour and
form, without urging them much with the goad.
69. The morning sun, the smoke rising from a (burning) corpse,
and a broken seat must be avoided. Let him not clip his nails
or hair, and not tear his nails with his teeth.
70. Let him not crush earth or clods, nor tear off grass
with his nails; let him not do anything that is useless or will
have disagreeable results in the future.
71. A man who crushes clods, tears off grass, or bites his
nails, goes soon to perdition, likewise an informer and he who
neglects (the rules of) purification.
72. Let him not wrangle; let him not wear a garland over
(his hair). To ride on the back of cows (or of oxen) is anyhow
a blamable act.
73. Let him not enter a walled village or house except by
the gate, and by night let him keep at a long distance from
the roots of trees.
74. Let him never play with dice, nor himself take off his
shoes; let him not eat, lying on a bed, nor what has been placed
in his hand or on a seat.
75. Let him not eat after sunset any (food) containing sesamum
grains; let him never sleep naked, nor go anywhere unpurified
(after meals).
76. Let him eat while his feet are (yet) wet (from the ablution),
but let him not go to bed with wet feet. He who eats while his
feet are (still) wet, will attain long life.
77. Let him never enter a place, difficult of access, which
is impervious to his eye; let him not look at urine or ordure,
nor cross a river (swimming) with his arms.
78. Let him not step on hair, ashes, bones, potsherds, cotton-seed
or chaff, if he desires long life.
79. Let him not stay together with outcasts, nor with Kandalas,
nor with Pukkasas, nor with fools, nor with overbearing men,
nor with low-caste men, nor with Antyavasayins.
80. Let him not give to a Sudra advice, nor the remnants
(of his meal), nor food offered to the gods; nor let him explain
the sacred law (to such a man), nor impose (upon him) a penance.
81. For he who explains the sacred law (to a Sudra) or dictates
to him a penance, will sink together with that (man) into the
hell (called) Asamvrita.
82. Let him not scratch his head with both hands joined;
let him not touch it while he is impure, nor bathe without (submerging)
it.
83. Let him avoid (in anger) to lay hold of (his own or other
men’s) hair, or to strike (himself or others) on the head. When
he has bathed (submerging) his head, he shall not touch any
of his limbs with oil.
84. Let him not accept presents from a king who is not descended
from the Kshatriya race, nor from butchers, oil-manufacturers,
and publicans, nor from those who subsist by the gain of prostitutes.
85. One oil-press is as (bad) as ten slaughter-houses, one
tavern as (bad as) ten oil-presses, one brothel as (bad as)
ten taverns, one king as (bad as) ten brothels.
86. A king is declared to be equal (in wickedness) to a butcher
who keeps a hundred thousand slaughter-houses; to accept presents
from him is a terrible (crime).
87. He who accepts presents from an avaricious king who acts
contrary to the Institutes (of the sacred law), will go in succession
to the following twenty-one hells:
88. Tamisra, Andhatamisra, Maharaurava, Raurava, the Kalasutra
hell, Mahanaraka,
89. Samgivana, Mahaviki, Tapana, Sampratapana, Samghata,
Sakakola, Kudmala, Putimrittika,
90. Lohasanku, Rigisha, Pathin, the (flaming) river, Salmala,
Asipatravana, and Lohakaraka.
91. Learned Brahmanas, who know that, who study the Veda
and desire bliss after death, do not accept presents from a
king.
92. Let him wake in the muhurta, sacred to Brahman, and think
of (the acquisition of) spiritual merit and wealth, of the bodily
fatigue arising therefrom, and of the true meaning of the Veda.
93. When he has risen, has relieved the necessities of nature
and carefully purified himself, let him stand during the morning
twilight, muttering for a long time (the Gayatri), and at the
proper time (he must similarly perform) the evening (devotion).
94. By prolonging the twilight devotions, the sages obtained
long life, wisdom, honour, fame, and excellence in Vedic knowledge.
95. Having performed the Upakarman according to the prescribed
rule on (the full moon of the month) Sravana, or on that of
Praushthapada (Bhadrapada), a Brahmana shall diligently study
the Vedas during four months and a half.
96. When the Pushya-day (of the month Pausha), or the first
day of the bright half of Magha has come, a Brahmana shall perform
in the forenoon the Utsargana of the Vedas.
97. Having performed the Utsarga outside (the village), as
the Institutes (of the sacred law) prescribe, he shall stop
reading during two days and the intervening night, or during
that day (of the Utsarga) and (the following) night.
98. Afterwards he shall diligently recite the Vedas during
the bright (halves of the months), and duly study all the Angas
of the Vedas during the dark fortnights.
99. Let him not recite (the texts) indistinctly, nor in the
presence of Sudras; nor let him, if in the latter part of the
night he is tired with reciting the Veda, go again to sleep.
100. According to the rule declared above, let him recite
the daily (portion of the) Mantras, and a zealous Brahmana,
(who is) not in distress, (shall study) the Brahmana and the
Mantrasamhita.
101. Let him who studies always avoid (reading) on the following
occasions when the Veda-study is forbidden, and (let) him who
teaches pupils according to the prescribed rule (do it likewise).
102. Those who know the (rules of) recitation declare that
in the rainy season the Veda-study must be stopped on these
two (occasions), when the wind is audible at night, and when
it whirls up the dust in the day-time.
103. Manu has stated, that when lightning, thunder, and rain
(are observed together), or when large fiery meteors fall on
all sides, the recitation must be interrupted until the same
hour (on the next day, counting from the occurrence of the event).
104. When one perceives these (phenomena) all together (in
the twilight), after the sacred fires have been made to blaze
(for the performance of the Agnihotra), then one must know the
recitation of the Veda to be forbidden, and also when clouds
appear out of season.
105. On (the occasion of) a preternatural sound from the
sky, (of) an earthquake, and when the lights of heaven are surrounded
by a halo, let him know that (the Veda-study must be) stopped
until the same hour (on the next day), even if (these phenomena
happen) in the (rainy) season.
106. But when lightning and the roar of thunder (are observed)
after the sacred fires have been made to blaze, the stoppage
shall last as long as the light (of the sun or of the stars
is visible); if the remaining (above-named phenomenon, rain,
occurs, the reading shall cease), both in the day-time and at
night.
107. For those who wish to acquire exceedingiy great merit,
a continual interruption of the Veda-study (is prescribed) in
villages and in towns, and (the Veda-study must) always (cease)
when any kind of foul smell (is perceptible).
108. In a village where a corpse lies, in the presence of
a (man who lives as unrighteously as a) Sudra, while (the sound
of) weeping (is heard), and in a crowd of men the (recitation
of the Veda must be) stopped.
109. In water, during the middle part of the night, while
he voids excrements, or is impure, and after he has partaken
of a funeral dinner, a man must not even think in his heart
(of the sacred texts).
110. A learned Brahmana shall not recite the Veda during
three days, when he has accepted an invitation to a (funeral
rite) in honour of one ancestor (ekoddishta), or when the king
has become impure through a birth or death in his family (sutaka),
or when Rahu by an eclipse makes the moon impure.
111. As long as the smell and the stains of the (food given)
in honour of one ancestor remain on the body of a learned Brahmana,
so long he must not recite the Veda.
112. While lying on a bed, while his feet are raised (on
a bench), while he sits on his hams with a cloth tied round
his knees, let him not study, nor when he has eaten meat or
food given by a person impure on account of a birth or a death,
113. Nor during a fog, nor while the sound of arrows is audible,
nor during both the twilights, nor on the new-moon day, nor
on the fourteenth and the eighth (days of each half-month),
nor on the full-moon day.
114. The new-moon day destroys the teacher, the fourteenth
(day) the pupil, the eighth and the full-moon days (destroy
all remembrance of) the Veda; let him therefore avoid (reading
on) those (days).
115. A Brahmana shall not recite (the Veda) during a dust-storm,
nor while the sky is preternaturally red, nor while jackals
howl, nor while the barking of dogs, the braying of donkeys,
or the grunting of camels (is heard), nor while (he is seated)
in a company.
116. Let him not study near a burial-ground, nor near a village,
nor in a cow-pen, nor dressed in a garment which he wore during
conjugal intercourse, nor after receiving a present at a funeral
sacrifice.
117. Be it an animal or a thing inanimate, whatever be the
(gift) at a Sraddha, let him not, having just accepted it, recite
the Veda; for the hand of a Brahmana is his mouth.
118. When the village has been beset by robbers, and when
an alarm has been raised by fire, let him know that (the Veda-study
must be) interrupted until the same hour (on the next day),
and on (the occurrence of) all portents.
119. On (the occasion of) the Upakarman and (of) the Vedotsarga
an omission (of the Veda-study) for three days has been prescribed,
but on the Ashtakas and on the last nights of the seasons for
a day and a night.
120. Let him not recite the Veda on horseback, nor on a tree,
nor on an elephant, nor in a boat (or ship), nor on a donkey,
nor on camel, nor standing on barren ground, nor riding in a
carriage,
121. Nor during a verbal altercation, nor during a mutual
assault, nor in a camp, nor during a battle, nor when he has
just eaten, nor during an indigestion, nor after vomiting, nor
with sour eructations,
122. Nor without receiving permission from a guest (who stays
in his house), nor while the wind blows vehemently, nor while
blood flows from his body, nor when he is wounded by a weapon.
123. Let him never recite the Rig-veda or the Yagur-veda
while the Saman (melodies) are heard; (let him stop all Veda-study
for a day and a night) after finishing a Veda or after reciting
an Aranyaka.
124. The Rig-veda is declared to be sacred to the gods, the
Yagur-veda sacred to men, and the Sama-veda sacred to the manes;
hence the sound of the latter is impure (as it were).
125. Knowing this, the learned daily repeat first in due
order the essence of the three (Vedas) and afterwards the (text
of the) Veda.
126. Know that (the Veda-study must be) interrupted for a
day and a night, when cattle, a frog, a cat, a dog, a snake,
an ichneumon, or a rat pass between (the teacher and his pupil).
127. Let a twice-born man always carefully interrupt the
Veda-study on two (occasions, viz.) when the place where he
recites is impure, and when he himself is unpurified.
128. A twice-born man who is a Snataka shall remain chaste
on the new-moon day, on the eighth (lunar day of each half-month),
on the full-moon day, and on the fourteenth, even (if they fall)
in the period (proper for conjugal intercourse).
129. Let him not bathe (immediately) after a meal, nor when
he is sick, nor in the middle of the night, nor frequently dressed
in all his garments, nor in a pool which he does not perfectly
know.
130. Let him not intentionally step on the shadow of (images
of) the gods, of a Guru, of a king, of a Snataka, of his teacher,
of a reddish-brown animal, or of one who has been initiated
to the performance of a Srauta sacrifice (Dikshita).
131. At midday and at midnight, after partaking of meat at
a funeral dinner, and in the two twilights let him not stay
long on a cross-road.
132. Let him not step intentionally on things used for cleansing
the body, on water used for a bath, on urine or ordure, on blood,
on mucus, and on anything spat out or vomited.
133. Let him not show particular attention to an enemy, to
the friend of an enemy, to a wicked man, to a thief, or to the
wife of another man.
134. For in this world there is nothing so detrimental to
long life as criminal conversation with another man’s wife.
135. Let him who desires prosperity, indeed, never despise
a Kshatriya, a snake, and a learned Brahmana, be they ever so
feeble.
136. Because these three, when treated with disrespect, may
utterly destroy him; hence a wise man must never despise them.
137. Let him not despise himself on account of former failures;
until death let him seek fortune, nor despair of gaining it.
138. Let him say what is true, let him say what is pleasing,
let him utter no disagreeable truth, and let him utter no agreeable
falsehood; that is the eternal law.
139. (What is) well, let him call well, or let him say ‘well’
only; let him not engage in a useless enmity or dispute with
anybody.
140. Let him not journey too early in the morning, nor too
late in the evening, nor just during the midday (heat), nor
with an unknown (companion), nor alone, nor with Sudras.
141. Let him not insult those who have redundant limbs or
are deficient in limbs, nor those destitute of knowledge, nor
very aged men, nor those who have no beauty or wealth, nor those
who are of low birth.
142. A Brahmana who is impure must not touch with his hand
a cow, a Brahmana, or fire; nor, being in good health, let him
look at the luminaries in the sky, while he is impure.
143. If he has touched these, while impure, let him always
sprinkle with his hand water on the organs of sensation, all
his limbs, and the navel.
144. Except when sick he must not touch the cavities (of
the body) without a reason, and he must avoid (to touch) the
hair on the secret (parts).
145. Let him eagerly follow the (customs which are) auspicious
and the rule of good conduct, be careful of purity, and control
all his organs, let him mutter (prayers) and, untired, daily
offer oblations in the fire.
146. No calamity happens to those who eagerly follow auspicious
customs and the rule of good conduct, to those who are always
careful of purity, and to those who mutter (sacred texts) and
offer burnt-oblations.
147. Let him, without tiring, daily mutter the Veda at the
proper time; for they declare that to be one’s highest duty;
(all) other (observances) are called secondary duties.
148. By daily reciting the Veda, by (the observance of the
rules of) purification, by (practising) austerities, and by
doing no injury to created beings, one (obtains the faculty
of) remembering former births.
149. He who, recollecting his former existences, again recites
the Veda, gains endless bliss by the continual study of the
Veda.
150. Let him always offer on the Parva-days oblations to
Savitri and such as avert evil omens, and on the Ashtakas and
Anvashtakas let him constantly worship the manes.
151. Far from his dwelling let him remove urine (and ordure),
far (let him remove) the water used for washing his feet, and
far the remnants of food and the water from his bath.
152. Early in the morning only let him void faeces, decorate
(his body), bathe, clean his teeth, apply collyrium to his eyes,
and worship the gods.
153. But on the Parva-days let him go to visit the (images
of the) gods, and virtuous Brahmanas, and the ruler (of the
country), for the sake of protection, as well as his Gurus.
154. Let him reverentially salute venerable men (who visit
him), give them his own seat, let him sit near them with joined
hands and, when they leave, (accompany them), walking behind
them.
155. Let him, untired, follow the conduct of virtuous men,
connected with his occupations, which has been fully declared
in the revealed texts and in the sacred tradition (Smriti) and
is the root of the sacred law.
156. Through virtuous conduct he obtains long life, through
virtuous conduct desirable offspring, through virtuous conduct
imperishable wealth; virtuous conduct destroys (the effect of)
inauspicious marks.
157. For a man of bad conduct is blamed among people, constantly
suffers misfortunes, is afflicted with diseases, and short-lived.
158. A man who follows the conduct of the virtuous, has faith
and is free from envy, lives a hundred years, though he be entirely
destitute of auspicious marks.
159. Let him carefully avoid all undertakings (the success
of) which depends on others; but let him eagerly pursue that
(the accomplishment of) which depends on himself.
160. Everything that depends on others (gives) pain, everything
that depends on oneself (gives) pleasure; know that this is
the short definition of pleasure and pain.
161. When the performance of an act gladdens his heart, let
him perform it with diligence; but let him avoid the opposite.
162. Let him never offend the teacher who initiated him,
nor him who explained the Veda, nor his father and mother, nor
(any other) Guru, nor cows, nor Brahmanas, nor any men performing
austerities.
163. Let him avoid atheism, cavilling at the Vedas, contempt
of the gods, hatred, want of modesty, pride, anger, and harshness.
164. Let him, when angry, not raise a stick against another
man, nor strike (anybody) except a son or a pupil; those two
he may beat in order to correct them.
165. A twice-born man who has merely threatened a Brahmana
with the intention of (doing him) a corporal injury, will wander
about for a hundred years in the Tamisra hell.
166. Having intentionally struck him in anger, even with
a blade of grass, he will be born during twenty-one existences
in the wombs (of such beings where men are born in punishment
of their) sins.
167. A man who in his folly caused blood to flow from the
body of a Brahmana who does not attack him, will suffer after
death exceedingly great pain.
168. As many particles of dust as the blood takes up from
the ground, during so many years the spiller of the blood will
be devoured by other (animals) in the next world.
169. A wise man should therefore never threaten a Brahmana,
nor strike him even with a blade of grass, nor cause his blood
to flow.
170. Neither a man who (lives) unrighteously, nor he who
(acquires) wealth (by telling) falsehoods, nor he who always
delights in doing injury, ever attain happiness in this world.
171. Let him, though suffering in consequence of his righteousness,
never turn his heart to unrighteousness; for he will see the
speedy overthrow of unrighteous, wicked men.
172. Unrighteousness, practised in this world, does not at
once produce its fruit, like a cow; but, advancing slowly, it
cuts off the roots of him who committed it.
173. If (the punishment falls) not on (the offender) himself,
(it falls) on his sons, if not on the sons, (at least) on his
grandsons; but an iniquity (once) committed, never fails to
produce fruit to him who wrought it.
174. He prospers for a while through unrighteousness, then
he gains great good fortune, next he conquers his enemies, but
(at last) he perishes (branch and) root.
175. Let him always delight in truthfulness, (obedience to)
the sacred law, conduct worthy of an Aryan, and purity; let
him chastise his pupils according to the sacred law; let him
keep his speech, his arms, and his belly under control.
176. Let him avoid (the acquisition of) wealth and (the gratification
of his) desires, if they are opposed to the sacred law, and
even lawful acts which may cause pain in the future or are offensive
to men.
177. Let him not be uselessly active with his hands and feet,
or with his eyes, nor crooked (in his ways), nor talk idly,
nor injure others by deeds or even think of it.
178. Let him walk in that path of holy men which his fathers
and his grandfathers followed; while he walks in that, he will
not suffer harm.
179. With an officiating or a domestic priest, with a teacher,
with a maternal uncle, a guest and a dependant, with infants,
aged and sick men, with learned men, with his paternal relatives,
connexions by marriage and maternal relatives,
180. With his father and his mother, with female relatives,
with a brother, with his son and his wife, with his daughter
and with his slaves, let him not have quarrels.
181. If he avoids quarrels with these persons, he will be
freed from all sins, and by suppressing (all) such (quarrels)
a householder conquers all the following worlds.
182. The teacher is the lord of the world of Brahman, the
father has power over the world of the Lord of created beings
(Pragapati), a guest rules over the world of Indra, and the
priests over the world of the gods.
183. The female relatives (have power) over the world of
the Apsarases, the maternal relatives over that of the Visve
Devas, the connexions by marriage over that of the waters, the
mother and the maternal uncle over the earth.
184. Infants, aged, poor and sick men must be considered
as rulers of the middle sphere, the eldest brother as equal
to one’s father, one’s wife and one’s son as one’s own body,
185. One’s slaves as one’s shadow, one’s daughter as the
highest object of tenderness; hence if one is offended by (any
one of) these, one must bear it without resentment.
186. Though (by his learning and sanctity) he may be entitled
to accept presents, let him not attach himself (too much) to
that (habit); for through his accepting (many) presents the
divine light in him is soon extinguished.
187. Without a full knowledge of the rules, prescribed by
the sacred law for the acceptance of presents, a wise man should
not take anything, even though he may pine with hunger.
188. But an ignorant (man) who accepts gold, land, a horse,
a cow, food, a dress, sesamum-grains, (or) clarified butter,
is reduced to ashes like (a piece of) wood.
189. Gold and food destroy his longevity, land and a cow
his body, a horse his eye (sight), a garment his skin, clarified
butter his energy, sesamum-grains his offspring.
190. A Brahmana who neither performs austerities nor studies
the Veda, yet delights in accepting gifts, sinks with the (donor
into hell), just as (he who attempts to cross over in) a boat
made of stone (is submerged) in the water.
191. Hence an ignorant (man) should be afraid of accepting
any presents; for by reason of a very small (gift) even a fool
sinks (into hell) as a cow into a morass.
192. (A man) who knows the law should not offer even water
to a Brahmana who acts like a cat, nor to a Brahmana who acts
like a heron, nor to one who is unacquainted with the Veda.
193. For property, though earned in accordance with prescribed
rules, which is given to these three (persons), causes in the
next world misery both to the giver and to the recipient.
194. As he who (attempts to) cross water in a boat of stone
sinks (to the bottom), even so an ignorant donor and an ignorant
donee sink low.
195. (A man) who, ever covetous, displays the flag of virtue,
(who is) a hypocrite, a deceiver of the people, intent on doing
injury, (and) a detractor (from the merits) of all men, one
must know to be one who acts like a cat.
196. That Brahmana, who with downcast look, of a cruel disposition,
is solely intent on attaining his own ends, dishonest and falsely
gentle, is one who acts like a heron.
197. Those Brahmanas who act like herons, and those who display
the characteristics of cats, fall in consequence of that wicked
mode of acting into (the hell called) Andhatamisra.
198. When he has committed a sin, let him not perform a penance
under the pretence (that the act is intended to gain) spiritual
merit, (thus) hiding his sin under (the pretext of) a vow and
deceiving women and Sudras.
199. Such Brahmanas are reprehended after death and in this
(life) by those who expound the Veda, and a vow, performed under
a false pretence, goes to the Rakshasas.
200. He who, without being a student, gains his livelihood
by (wearing) the dress of a student, takes upon himself the
guilt of (all) students and is born again in the womb of an
animal.
201. Let him never bathe in tanks belonging to other men;
if he bathes (in such a one), he is tainted by a portion of
the guilt of him who made the tank.
202. He who uses without permission a carriage, a bed, a
seat, a well, a garden or a house belonging to an (other man),
takes upon himself one fourth of (the owner’s) guilt.
203. Let him always bathe in rivers, in ponds, dug by the
gods (themselves), in lakes, and in waterholes or springs.
204. A wise man should constantly discharge the paramount
duties (called yama), but not always the minor ones (called
niyama); for he who does not discharge the former, while he
obeys the latter alone, becomes an outcast.
205. A Brahmana must never eat (a dinner given) at a sacrifice
that is offered by one who is not a Srotriya, by one who sacrifices
for a multitude of men, by a woman, or by a eunuch.
206. When those persons offer sacrificial viands in the fire,
it is unlucky for holy (men) it displeases the gods; let him
therefore avoid it.
207. Let him never eat (food given) by intoxicated, angry,
or sick (men), nor that in which hair or insects are found,
nor what has been touched intentionally with the foot,
208. Nor that at which the slayer of a learned Brahmana has
looked, nor that which has been touched by a menstruating woman,
nor that which has been pecked at by birds or touched by a dog,
209. Nor food at which a cow has smelt, nor particularly
that which has been offered by an invitation to all comers,
nor that (given) by a multitude or by harlots, nor that which
is declared to be had by a learned (man),
210. Nor the food (given) by a thief, a musician, a carpenter,
a usurer, one who has been initiated (for the performance of
a Srauta sacrifice), a miser, one bound with fetters,
211. By one accused of a mortal sin (Abhisasta), a hermaphrodite,
an unchaste woman, or a hypocrite, nor (any sweet thing) that
has turned sour, nor what has been kept a whole night, nor (the
food) of a Sudra, nor the leavings (of another man),
212. Nor (the food given) by a physician, a hunter, a cruel
man, one who eats the fragments (of another’s meal), nor the
food of an Ugra, nor that prepared for a woman in childbed,
nor that (given at a dinner) where (a guest rises) prematurely
(and) sips water, nor that (given by a woman) whose ten days
of impurity have not elapsed,
213. Nor (food) given without due respect, nor (that which
contains) meat eaten for no sacred purpose, nor (that given)
by a female who has no male (relatives), nor the food of an
enemy, nor that (given) by the lord of a town, nor that (given)
by outcasts, nor that on which anybody has sneezed;
214. Nor the food (given) by an informer, by one who habitually
tells falsehoods, or by one who sells (the rewards for) sacrifices,
nor the food (given) by an actor, a tailor, or an ungrateful
(man),
215. By a blacksmith, a Nishada, a stage-player, a goldsmith,
a basket-maker, or a dealer in weapons,
216. By trainers of hunting dogs, publicans, a washerman,
a dyer, a pitiless (man), and a man in whose house (lives) a
paramour (of his wife),
217. Nor (the food given) by those who knowingly bear with
paramours (of their wives), and by those who in all matters
are ruled by women, nor food (given by men) whose ten days of
impurity on account of a death have not passed, nor that which
is unpalatable.
218. The food of a king impairs his vigour, the food of a
Sudra his excellence in sacred learning, the food of a goldsmith
his longevity, that of a leather-cutter his fame;
219. The food of an artisan destroys his offspring, that
of a washerman his (bodily) strength; the food of a multitude
and of harlots excludes him from (the higher) worlds.
220. The food of a physician (is as vile as) pus, that of
an unchaste woman (equal to) semen, that of a usurer (as vile
as) ordure, and that of a dealer in weapons (as bad as) dirt.
221. The food of those other persons who have been successively
enumerated as such whose food must not be eaten, the wise declare
(to be as impure as) skin, bones, and hair.
222. If he has unwittingly eaten the food of one of those,
(he must) fast for three days; if he has eaten it intentionally,
or (has swallowed) semen, ordure, or urine, he must perform
a Krikkhra penance.
223. A Brahmana who knows (the law) must not eat cooked food
(given) by a Sudra who performs no Sraddhas; but, on failure
of (other) means of subsistence, he may accept raw (grain),
sufficient for one night (and day).
224. The gods, having considered (the respective merits)
of a niggardly Srotriya and of a liberal usurer, declared the
food of both to be equal (in quality).
225. The Lord of created beings (Pragapati) came and spake
to them, ‘Do not make that equal, which is unequal. The food
of that liberal (usurer) is purified by faith; (that of the)
of the) other (man) is defiled by a want of faith.’
226. Let him, without tiring, always offer sacrifices and
perform works of charity with faith; for offerings and charitable
works made with faith and with lawfully-earned money, (procure)
endless rewards.
227. Let him always practise, according to his ability, with
a cheerful heart, the duty of liberality, both by sacrifices
and by charitable works, if he finds a worthy recipient (for
his gifts.)
228. If he is asked, let him always give something, be it
ever so little, without grudging; for a worthy recipient will
(perhaps) be found who saves him from all (guilt).
229. A giver of water obtains the satisfaction (of his hunger
and thirst), a giver of food imperishable happiness, a giver
of sesamum desirable offspring, a giver of a lamp a most excellent
eyesight.
230. A giver of land obtains land, a giver of gold long life,
a giver of a house most excellent mansions, a giver of silver
(rupya) exquisite beauty (rupa),
231. A giver of a garment a place in the world of the moon,
a giver of a horse (asva) a place in the world of the Asvins,
a giver of a draught-ox great good fortune, a giver of a cow
the world of the sun;
232. A giver of a carriage or of a bed a wife, a giver of
protection supreme dominion, a giver of grain eternal bliss,
a giver of the Veda (brahman) union with Brahman;
233. The gift of the Veda surpasses all other gifts, water,
food, cows, land, clothes, sesamum, gold, and clarified butter.
234. For whatever purpose (a man) bestows any gift, for that
same purpose he receives (in his next birth) with due honour
its (reward).
235. Both he who respectfully receives (a gift), and he who
respectfully bestows it, go to heaven; in the contrary case
(they both fall) into hell.
236. Let him not be proud of his austerities; let him not
utter a falsehood after he has offered a sacrifice; let him
not speak ill of Brahmanas, though he be tormented (by them);
when he has bestowed (a gift), let him not boast of it.
237. By falsehood a sacrifice becomes vain, by self-complacency
(the reward for) austerities is lost, longevity by speaking
evil of Brahmanas, and (the reward of) a gift by boasting.
238. Giving no pain to any creature, let him slowly accumulate
spiritual merit, for the sake (of acquiring) a companion to
the next world, just as the white ant (gradually raises its)
hill.
239. For in the next world neither father, nor mother, nor
wife, nor sons, nor relations stay to be his companions; spiritual
merit alone remains (with him).
240. Single is each being born; single it dies; single it
enjoys (the reward of its) virtue; single (it suffers the punishment
of its) sin.
241. Leaving the dead body on the ground like a log of wood,
or a clod of earth, the relatives depart with averted faces;
but spiritual merit follows the (soul).
242. Let him therefore always slowly accumulate spiritual
merit, in order (that it may be his) companion (after death);
for with merit as his companion he will traverse a gloom difficult
to traverse.
243. (That companion) speedily conducts the man who is devoted
to duty and effaces his sins by austerities, to the next world,
radiant and clothed with an ethereal body.
244. Let him, who desires to raise his race, ever form connexions
with the most excellent (men), and shun all low ones.
245. A Brahmana who always connects himself with the most
excellent (ones), and shuns all inferior ones, (himself) becomes
most distinguished; by an opposite conduct he becomes a Sudra.
246. He who is persevering, gentle, (and) patient, shuns
the company of men of cruel conduct, and does no injury (to
living creatures), gains, if he constantly lives in that manner,
by controlling his organs and by liberality, heavenly bliss.
247. He may accept from any (man), fuel, water, roots, fruit,
food offered without asking, and honey, likewise a gift (which
consists in) a promise of protection.
248. The Lord of created beings (Pragapati) has declared
that alms freely offered and brought (by the giver himself)
may be accepted even from a sinful man, provided (the gift)
had not been (asked for or) promised beforehand.
249. During fifteen years the manes do not eat (the food)
of that man who disdains a (freely-offered gift), nor does the
fire carry his offerings (to the gods).
250. A couch, a house, Kusa grass, perfumes, water, flowers,
jewels, sour milk, grain, fish, sweet milk, meat, and vegetables
let him not reject, (if they are voluntarily offered.)
251. He who desires to relieve his Gurus and those whom he
is bound to maintain, or wishes to honour the gods and guests,
may accept (gifts) from anybody; but he must not satisfy his
(own hunger) with such (presents).
252. But if his Gurus are dead, or if he lives separate from
them in (another) house, let him, when he seeks a subsistence,
accept (presents) from good men alone.
253. His labourer in tillage, a friend of his family, his
cow-herd, his slave, and his barber are, among Sudras, those
whose food he may eat, likewise (a poor man) who offers himself
(to be his slave).
254. As his character is, as the work is which he desires
to perform, and as the manner is in which he means to serve,
even so (a voluntary slave) must offer himself.
255. He who describes himself to virtuous (men), in a manner
contrary to truth, is the most sinful (wretch) in this world;
he is a thief who makes away with his own self.
256. All things (have their nature) determined by speech;
speech is their root, and from speech they proceed; but he who
is dishonest with respect to speech, is dishonest in everything.
257. When he has paid, according to the law, his debts to
the great sages, to the manes, and to the gods, let him make
over everything to his son and dwell (in his house), not caring
for any worldly concerns.
258. Alone let him constantly meditate in solitude on that
which is salutary for his soul; for he who meditates in solitude
attains supreme bliss.
259. Thus have been declared the means by which a Brahmana
householder must always subsist, and the summary of the ordinances
for a Snataka, which cause an increase of holiness and are praiseworthy.
260. A Brahmana who, being learned in the lore of the Vedas,
conducts himself in this manner and daily destroys his sins,
will be exalted in Brahman’s world.
CHAPTER V.
1. The sages, having heard the duties of a Snataka thus declared,
spoke to great-souled Bhrigu, who sprang from fire:
2. ‘How can Death have power over Brahmanas who know the
sacred science, the Veda, (and) who fulfil their duties as they
have been explained (by thee), O Lord? ‘
3. Righteous Bhrigu, the son of Manu, (thus) answered the
great sages: ‘Hear, (in punishment) of what faults Death seeks
to shorten the lives of Brahmanas!’
4. ‘Through neglect of the Veda-study, through deviation
from the rule of conduct, through remissness (in the fulfilment
of duties), and through faults (committed by eating forbidden)
food, Death becomes eager to shorten the lives of Brahmanas.’
5. Garlic, leeks and onions, mushrooms and (all plants),
springing from impure (substances), are unfit to be eaten by
twice-born men.
6. One should carefully avoid red exudations from trees and
(juices) flowing from incisions, the Selu (fruit), and the thickened
milk of a cow (which she gives after calving).
7. Rice boiled with sesamum, wheat mixed with butter, milk
and sugar, milk-rice and flour-cakes which are not prepared
for a sacrifice, meat which has not been sprinkled with water
while sacred texts were recited, food offered to the gods and
sacrificial viands,
8. The milk of a cow (or other female animal) within ten
days after her calving, that of camels, of one-hoofed animals,
of sheep, of a cow in heat, or of one that has no calf with
her,
9. (The milk) of all wild animals excepting buffalo-cows,
that of women, and all (substances turned) sour must be avoided.
10. Among (things turned) sour, sour milk, and all (food)
prepared of it may be eaten, likewise what is extracted from
pure flowers, roots, and fruit.
11. Let him avoid all carnivorous birds and those living
in villages, and one-hoofed animals which are not specially
permitted (to be eaten), and the Tittibha (Parra Jacana),
12. The sparrow, the Plava, the Hamsa, the Brahmani duck,
the village-cock, the Sarasa crane, the Raggudala, the woodpecker,
the parrot, and the starling,
13. Those which feed striking with their beaks, web-footed
birds, the Koyashti, those which scratch with their toes, those
which dive and live on fish, meat from a slaughter-house and
dried meat,
14. The Baka and the Balaka crane, the raven, the Khangaritaka,
(animals) that eat fish, village-pigs, and all kinds of fishes.
15. He who eats the flesh of any (animal) is called the eater
of the flesh of that (particular creature), he who eats fish
is an eater of every (kind of) flesh; let him therefore avoid
fish.
16. (But the fish called) Pathina and (that called) Rohita
may be eaten, if used for offerings to the gods or to the manes;
(one may eat) likewise Ragivas, Simhatundas, and Sasalkas on
all (occasions).
17. Let him not eat solitary or unknown beasts and birds,
though they may fall under (the categories of) eatable (creatures),
nor any five-toed (animals).
18. The porcupine, the hedgehog, the iguana, the rhinoceros,
the tortoise, and the hare they declare to be eatable; likewise
those (domestic animals) that have teeth in one jaw only, excepting
camels.
19. A twice-born man who knowingly eats mushrooms, a village-pig,
garlic, a village-cock, onions, or leeks, will become an outcast.
20. He who unwittingly partakes of (any of) these six, shall
perform a Samtapana (Krikkhra) or the lunar penance (Kandrayana)
of ascetics; in case (he who has eaten) any other (kind of forbidden
food) he shall fast for one day (and a night ).
21. Once a year a Brahmana must perform a Krikkhra penance,
in order to atone for unintentionally eating (forbidden food)
but for intentionally (eating forbidden food he must perform
the penances prescribed) specially.
22. Beasts and birds recommended (for consumption) may be
slain by Brahmanas for sacrifices, and in order to feed those
whom they are bound to maintain; for Agastya did this of old.
23. For in ancient (times) the sacrificial cakes were (made
of the flesh) of eatable beasts and birds at the sacrifices
offered by Brahmanas and Kshatriyas.
24. All lawful hard or soft food may be eaten, though stale,
(after having been) mixed with fatty (substances), and so may
the remains of sacrificial viands.
25. But all preparations of barley and wheat, as well as
preparations of milk, may be eaten by twice-born men without
being mixed with fatty (substances), though they may have stood
for a long time.
26. Thus has the food, allowed and forbidden to twice-born
men, been fully described; I will now propound the rules for
eating and avoiding meat.
27. One may eat meat when it has been sprinkled with water,
while Mantras were recited, when Brahmanas desire (one’s doing
it), when one is engaged (in the performance of a rite) according
to the law, and when one’s life is in danger.
28. The Lord of creatures (Pragapati) created this whole
(world to be) the sustenance of the vital spirit; both the immovable
and the movable (creation is) the food of the vital spirit.
29. What is destitute of motion is the food of those endowed
with locomotion; (animals) without fangs (are the food) of those
with fangs, those without hands of those who possess hands,
and the timid of the bold.
30. The eater who daily even devours those destined to be
his food, commits no sin; for the creator himself created both
the eaters and those who are to be eaten (for those special
purposes).
31. ‘The consumption of meat (is befitting) for sacrifices,’
that is declared to be a rule made by the gods; but to persist
(in using it) on other (occasions) is said to be a proceeding
worthy of Rakshasas.
32. He who eats meat, when he honours the gods and manes,
commits no sin, whether he has bought it, or himself has killed
(the animal), or has received it as a present from others.
33. A twice-born man who knows the law, must not eat meat
except in conformity with the law; for if he has eaten it unlawfully,
he will, unable to save himself, be eaten after death by his
(victims).
34. After death the guilt of one who slays deer for gain
is not as (great) as that of him who eats meat for no (sacred)
purpose.
35. But a man who, being duly engaged (to officiate or to
dine at a sacred rite), refuses to eat meat, becomes after death
an animal during twenty-one existences.
36. A Brahmana must never eat (the flesh of animals unhallowed
by Mantras; but, obedient to the primeval law, he may eat it,
consecrated with Vedic texts.
37. If he has a strong desire (for meat) he may make an animal
of clarified butter or one of flour, (and eat that); but let
him never seek to destroy an animal without a (lawful) reason.
38. As many hairs as the slain beast has, so often indeed
will he who killed it without a (lawful) reason suffer a violent
death in future births.
39. Svayambhu (the Self-existent) himself created animals
for the sake of sacrifices; sacrifices (have been instituted)
for the good of this whole (world); hence the slaughtering (of
beasts) for sacrifices is not slaughtering (in the ordinary
sense of the word).
40. Herbs, trees, cattle, birds, and (other) animals that
have been destroyed for sacrifices, receive (being reborn) higher
existences.
41. On offering the honey-mixture (to a guest), at a sacrifice
and at the rites in honour of the manes, but on these occasions
only, may an animal be slain; that (rule) Manu proclaimed.
42. A twice-born man who, knowing the true meaning of the
Veda, slays an animal for these purposes, causes both himself
and the animal to enter a most blessed state.
43. A twice-born man of virtuous disposition, whether he
dwells in (his own) house, with a teacher, or in the forest,
must never, even in times of distress, cause an injury (to any
creature) which is not sanctioned by the Veda.
44. Know that the injury to moving creatures and to those
destitute of motion, which the Veda has prescribed for certain
occasions, is no injury at all; for the sacred law shone forth
from the Veda.
45. He who injures innoxious beings from a wish to (give)
himself pleasure, never finds happiness, neither living nor
dead.
46. He who does not seek to cause the sufferings of bonds
and death to living creatures, (but) desires the good of all
(beings), obtains endless bliss.
47. He who does not injure any (creature), attains without
an effort what he thinks of, what he undertakes, and what he
fixes his mind on.
48. Meat can never be obtained without injury to living creatures,
and injury to sentient beings is detrimental to (the attainment
of) heavenly bliss; let him therefore shun (the use of) meat.
49. Having well considered the (disgusting) origin of flesh
and the (cruelty of) fettering and slaying corporeal beings,
let him entirely abstain from eating flesh.
50. He who, disregarding the rule (given above), does not
eat meat like a Pisaka, becomes dear to men, and will not be
tormented by diseases.
51. He who permits (the slaughter of an animal), he who cuts
it up, he who kills it, he who buys or sells (meat), he who
cooks it, he who serves it up, and he who eats it, (must all
be considered as) the slayers (of the animal).
52. There is no greater sinner than that (man) who, though
not worshipping the gods or the manes, seeks to increase (the
bulk of) his own flesh by the flesh of other (beings).
53. He who during a hundred years annually offers a horse-sacrifice,
and he who entirely abstains from meat, obtain the same reward
for their meritorious (conduct).
54. By subsisting on pure fruit and roots, and by eating
food fit for ascetics (in the forest), one does not gain (so
great) a reward as by entirely avoiding (the use of) flesh.
55. ‘Me he (mam sah)’ will devour in the next (world), whose
flesh I eat in this (life); the wise declare this (to be) the
real meaning of the word ‘flesh’ (mamsah).
56. There is no sin in eating meat, in (drinking) spirituous
liquor, and in carnal intercourse, for that is the natural way
of created beings, but abstention brings great rewards.
57. I will now in due order explain the purification for
the dead and the purification of things as they are prescribed
for the four castes (varna).
58. When (a child) dies that has teethed, or that before
teething has received (the sacrament of) the tonsure (Kudakarana)
or (of the initiation), all relatives (become) impure, and on
the birth (of a child) the same (rule) is prescribed.
59. It is ordained (that) among Sapindas the impurity on
account of a death (shall last) ten days, (or) until the bones
have been collected, (or) three days or one day only.
60. But the Sapinda-relationship ceases with the seventh
person (in the ascending and descending lines), the Samanodaka-relationship
when the (common) origin and the (existence of a common family)-name
are no (longer) known.
61. As this impurity on account of a death is prescribed
for (all) Sapindas, even so it shall be (held) on a birth by
those who desire to be absolutely pure.
62. (Or while) the impurity on account of a death is common
to all (Sapindas), that caused by a birth (falls) on the parents
alone; (or) it shall fall on the mother alone, and the father
shall become pure by bathing;
63. But a man, having spent his strength, is purified merely
by bathing; after begetting a child (on a remarried female),
he shall retain the impurity during three days.
64. Those who have touched a corpse are purified after one
day and night (added to) three periods of three days; those
who give libations of water, after three days.
65. A pupil who performs the Pitrimedha for his deceased
teacher, becomes also pure after ten days, just like those who
carry the corpse out (to the burial-ground).
66. (A woman) is purified on a miscarriage in as many (days
and) nights as months (elapsed after conception), and a menstruating
female becomes pure by bathing after the menstrual secretion
has ceased (to flow).
67. (On the death) of children whose tonsure (Kudakarman)
has not been performed, the (Sapindas) are declared to become
pure in one (day and) night; (on the death) of those who have
received the tonsure (but not the initiation, the law) ordains
(that) the purification (takes place) after three days.
68. A child that has died before the completion of its second
year, the relatives shall carry out (of the village), decked
(with flowers, and bury it) in pure ground, without collecting
the bones (afterwards).
69. Such (a child) shall not be burnt with fire, and no libations
of water shall be offered to it; leaving it like a (log of)
wood in the forest, (the relatives) shall remain impure during
three days only.
70. The relatives shall not offer libations to (a child)
that has not reached the third year; but if it had teeth, or
the ceremony of naming it (Namakarman) had been performed, (the
offering of water is) optional.
71. If a fellow-student has died, the Smriti prescribes an
impurity of one day; on a birth the purification of the Samanodakas
is declared (to take place) after three (days and) nights.
72. (On the death) of females (betrothed but) not married
(the bridegroom and his) relatives are purified after three
days, and the paternal relatives become pure according to the
same rule.
73. Let (mourners) eat food without factitious salt, bathe
during three days, abstain from meat, and sleep separate on
the ground.
74. The above rule regarding impurity on account of a death
has been prescribed (for cases where the kinsmen live) near
(the deceased); (Sapinda) kinsmen and (Samanodaka) relatives
must know the following rule (to refer to cases where deceased
lived) at a distance (from them).
75. He who may hear that (a relative) residing in a distant
country has died, before ten (days after his death have elapsed),
shall be impure for the remainder of the period of ten (days
and) nights only.
76. If the ten days have passed, he shall be impure during
three (days and) nights; but if a year has elapsed (since the
occurrence of the death), he becomes pure merely by bathing.
77. A man who hears of a (Sapinda) relative’s death, or of
the birth of a son after the ten days (of impurity have passed),
becomes pure by bathing, dressed in his garments.
78. If an infant (that has not teethed), or a (grownup relative
who is) not a Sapinda, die in a distant country, one becomes
at once pure after bathing in one’s clothes.
79. If within the ten days (of impurity) another birth or
death happens, a Brahmana shall remain impure only until the
(first) period of ten days has expired.
80. They declare that, when the teacher (akarya) has died,
the impurity (lasts) three days; if the (teacher’s) son or wife
(is dead, it lasts) a day and a night; that is a settled (rule).
81. For a Srotriya who resides with (him out of affection),
a man shall be impure for three days; for a maternal uncle,
a pupil, an officiating priest, or a maternal relative, for
one night together with the preceding and following days.
82. If the king in whose realm he resides is dead, (he shall
be impure) as long as the light (of the sun or stars shines),
but for (an intimate friend) who is not a Srotriya (the impurity
lasts) for a whole day, likewise for a Guru who knows the Veda
and the Angas.
83. A Brahmana shall be pure after ten days, a Kshatriya
after twelve, a Vaisya after fifteen, and a Sudra is purified
after a month.
84. Let him not (unnecessarily) lengthen the period of impurity,
nor interrupt the rites to be performed with the sacred fires;
for he who performs that (Agnihotra) rite will not be impure,
though (he be) a (Sapinda) relative.
85. When he has touched a Kandala, a menstruating woman,
an outcast, a woman in childbed, a corpse, or one who has touched
a (corpse), he becomes pure by bathing.
86. He who has purified himself by sipping water shall, on
seeing any impure (thing or person), always mutter the sacred
texts, addressed to Surya, and the Pavamani (verses).
87. A Brahmana who has touched a human bone to which fat
adheres, becomes pure by bathing; if it be free from fat, by
sipping water and by touching (afterwards) a cow or looking
at the sun.
88. He who has undertaken the performance of a vow shall
not pour out libations (to the dead) until the vow has been
completed; but when he has offered water after its completion,
he becomes pure in three days only.
89. Libations of water shall not be offered to those who
(neglect the prescribed rites and may be said to) have been
born in vain, to those born in consequence of an illegal mixture
of the castes, to those who are ascetics (of heretical sects),
and to those who have committed suicide,
90. To women who have joined a heretical sect, who through
lust live (with many men), who have caused an abortion, have
killed their husbands, or drink spirituous liquor.
91. A student does not break his vow by carrying out (to
the place of cremation) his own dead teacher (akarya), sub-teacher
(upadhyaya), father, mother, or Guru.
92. Let him carry out a dead Sudra by the southern gate of
the town, but (the corpses of) twice-born men, as is proper,
by the western, northern, or eastern (gates).
93. The taint of impurity does not fall on kings, and those
engaged in the performance of a vow, or of a Sattra; for the
(first are) seated on the throne of Indra, and the (last two
are) ever pure like Brahman.
94. For a king, on the throne of magnanimity, immediate purification
is prescribed, and the reason for that is that he is seated
(there) for the protection of (his) subjects.
95. (The same rule applies to the kinsmen) of those who have
fallen in a riot or a battle, (of those who have been killed)
by lightning or by the king, and (of those who perished fighting)
for cows and Brahmanas, and to those whom the king wishes (to
be pure).
96. A king is an incarnation of the eight guardian deities
of the world, the Moon, the Fire, the Sun, the Wind, Indra,
the Lords of wealth and water (Kubera and Varuna), and Yama.
97. Because the king is pervaded by those lords of the world,
no impurity is ordained for him; for purity and impurity of
mortals is caused and removed by (those) lords of the world.
98. By him who is slain in battle with brandished weapons
according to the law of the Kshatriyas, a (Srauta) sacrifice
is instantly completed, and so is the period of impurity (caused
by his death); that is a settled rule.
99. (At the end of the period of impurity) a Brahmana who
has performed the necessary rites, becomes pure by touching
water, a Kshatriya by touching the animal on which he rides,
and his weapons, a Vaisya by touching his goad or the nose-string
(of his oxen), a Sudra by touching his staff.
100. Thus the purification (required) on (the death of) Sapindas
has been explained to you, O best of twice-born men; hear now
the manner in which men are purified on the death of any (relative
who is) not a Sapinda.
101. A Brahmana, having carried out a dead Brahmana who is
not a Sapinda, as (if he were) a (near) relative, or a near
relative of his mother, becomes pure after three days;
102. But if he eats the food of the (Sapindas of the deceased),
he is purified in ten days, (but) in one day, if he does not
eat their food nor dwells in their house.
103. Having voluntarily followed a corpse, whether (that
of) a paternal kinsman or (of) a stranger, he becomes pure by
bathing, dressed in his clothes, by touching fire and eating
clarified butter.
104. Let him not allow a dead Brahmana to be carried out
by a Sudra, while men of the same caste are at hand; for that
burnt-offering which is defiled by a Sudra’s touch is detrimental
to (the deceased’s passage to) heaven.
105. The knowledge (of Brahman) austerities, fire, (holy)
food, earth, (restraint of) the internal organ, water, smearing
(with cowdung), the wind, sacred rites, the sun, and time are
the purifiers of corporeal (beings).
106. Among all modes of purification, purity in (the acquisition
of) wealth is declared to be the best; for he is pure who gains
wealth with clean hands, not he who purifies himself with earth
and water.
107. The learned are purified by a forgiving disposition,
those who have committed forbidden actions by liberality, secret
sinners by muttering (sacred texts), and those who best know
the Veda by austerities.
108. By earth and water is purified what ought to be made
pure, a river by its current, a woman whose thoughts have been
impure by the menstrual secretion, a Brahmana by abandoning
the world (samnyasa).
109. The body is cleansed by water, the internal organ is
purified by truthfulness, the individual soul by sacred learning
and austerities, the intellect by (true) knowledge.
110. Thus the precise rules for the purification of the body
have been declared to you; hear now the decision (of the law)
regarding the purification of the various (inanimate) things.
111. The wise ordain that all (objects) made of metal, gems,
and anything made of stone are to be cleansed with ashes, earth,
and water.
112. A golden vessel which shows no stains, becomes pure
with water alone, likewise what is produced in water (as shells
and coral), what is made of stone, and a silver (vessel) not
enchased.
113. From the union of water and fire arose the glittering
gold and silver; those two, therefore, are best purified by
(the elements) from which they sprang.
114. Copper, iron, brass, pewter, tin, and lead must be cleansed,
as may be suitable (for each particular case), by alkaline (substances),
acids or water.
115. The purification prescribed for all (sorts of) liquids
is by passing two blades of Kusa grass through them, for solid
things by sprinkling (them with water), for (objects) made of
wood by planing them.
116. At sacrifices the purification of (the Soma cups called)
Kamasas and Grahas, and of (other) sacrificial vessels (takes
place) by rubbing (them) with the hand, and (afterwards) rinsing
(them with water).
117. The Karu and (the spoons called) Sruk and Sruva must
be cleaned with hot water, likewise (the wooden sword, called)
Sphya, the winnowing-basket (Surpa), the cart (for bringing
the grain), the pestle and the mortar.
118. The manner of purifying large quantities of grain and
of cloth is to sprinkle them with water; but the purification
of small quantities is prescribed (to take place) by washing
them.
119. Skins and (objects) made of split cane must be cleaned
like clothes; vegetables, roots, and fruit like grain;
120. Silk and woollen stuffs with alkaline earth; blankets
with pounded Arishta (fruit); Amsupattas with Bel fruit; linen
cloth with (a paste of) yellow mustard.
121. A man who knows (the law) must purify conch-shells,
horn, bone and ivory, like linen cloth, or with a mixture of
cow’s urine and water.
122. Grass, wood, and straw become pure by being sprinkled
(with water), a house by sweeping and smearing (it with cowdung
or whitewash), an earthen (vessel) by a second burning.
123. An earthen vessel which has been defiled by spirituous
liquor, urine, ordure, saliva, pus or blood cannot be purified
by another burning.
124. Land is purified by (the following) five (modes, viz.)
by sweeping, by smearing (it with cowdung), by sprinkling (it
with cows’ urine or milk), by scraping, and by cows staying
(on it during a day and night).
125. (Food) which has been pecked at by birds, smelt at by
cows, touched (with the foot), sneezed on, or defiled by hair
or insects, becomes pure by scattering earth (over it).
126. As long as the (foul) smell does not leave an (object)
defiled by impure substances, and the stain caused by them (does
not disappear), so long must earth and water be applied in cleansing
(inanimate) things.
127. The gods declared three things (to be) pure to Brahmanas,
that (on which) no (taint is) visible, what has been washed
with water, and what has been commended (as pure) by the word
(of a Brahmana).
128. Water, sufficient (in quantity) in order to slake the
thirst of a cow, possessing the (proper) smell, colour, and
taste, and unmixed with impure substances, is pure, if it is
collected on (pure) ground.
129. The hand of an artisan is always pure, so is (every
vendible commodity) exposed for sale in the market, and food
obtained by begging which a student holds (in his hand) is always
fit for use; that is a settled rule.
130. The mouth of a woman is always pure, likewise a bird
when he causes a fruit to fall; a calf is pure on the flowing
of the milk, and a dog when he catches a deer.
131. Manu has declared that the flesh (of an animal) killed
by dogs is pure, likewise (that) of a (beast) slain by carnivorous
(animals) or by men of low caste (Dasyu), such as Kandalas.
132. All those cavities (of the body) which lie above the
navel are pure, (but) those which are below the navel are impure,
as well as excretions that fall from the body.
133. Flies, drops of water, a shadow, a cow, a horse, the
rays of the sun, dust, earth, the wind, and fire one must know
to be pure to the touch.
134. In order to cleanse (the organs) by which urine and
faeces are ejected, earth and water must be used, as they may
be required, likewise in removing the (remaining ones among)
twelve impurities of the body.
135. Oily exudations, semen, blood, (the fatty substance
of the) brain, urine, faeces, the mucus of the nose, ear-wax,
phlegm, tears, the rheum of the eyes, and sweat are the twelve
impurities of human (bodies).
136. He who desires to be pure, must clean the organ by one
(application of) earth, the anus by (applying earth) three (times),
the (left) hand alone by (applying it) ten (times), and both
(hands) by (applying it) seven (times).
137. Such is the purification ordained for householders;
(it shall be) double for students, treble for hermits, but quadruple
for ascetics.
138. When he has voided urine or faeces, let him, after sipping
water, sprinkle the cavities, likewise when he is going to recite
the Veda, and always before he takes food.
139. Let him who desires bodily purity first sip water three
times, and then twice wipe his mouth; but a woman and a Sudra
(shall perform each act) once (only).
140. Sudras who live according to the law, shall each month
shave (their heads); their mode of purification (shall be) the
same as that of Vaisyas, and their food the fragments of an
Aryan’s meal.
141. Drops (of water) from the mouth which do not fall on
a limb, do not make (a man) impure, nor the hair of the moustache
entering the mouth, nor what adheres to the teeth.
142. Drops which trickle on the feet of him who offers water
for sipping to others, must be considered as equal to (water
collected on the ground; they render him not impure.
143. He who, while carrying anything in any manner, is touched
by an impure (person or thing), shall become pure, if he performs
an ablution, without putting down that object.
144. He who has vomited or purged shall bathe, and afterwards
eat clarified butter; but if (the attack comes on) after he
has eaten, let him only sip water; bathing is prescribed for
him who has had intercourse with a woman.
145. Though he may be (already) pure, let him sip water after
sleeping, sneezing, eating, spitting, telling untruths, and
drinking water, likewise when he is going to study the Veda.
146. Thus the rules of personal purification for men of all
castes, and those for cleaning (inanimate) things, have been
fully declared to you: hear now the duties of women.
147. By a girl, by a young woman, or even by an aged one,
nothing must be done independently, even in her own house.
148. In childhood a female must be subject to her father,
in youth to her husband, when her lord is dead to her sons;
a woman must never be independent.
149. She must not seek to separate herself from her father,
husband, or sons; by leaving them she would make both (her own
and her husband’s) families contemptible.
150. She must always be cheerful, clever in (the management
of her) household affairs, careful in cleaning her utensils,
and economical in expenditure.
151. Him to whom her father may give her, or her brother
with the father’s permission, she shall obey as long as he lives,
and when he is dead, she must not insult (his memory).
152. For the sake of procuring good fortune to (brides),
the recitation of benedictory texts (svastyayana), and the sacrifice
to the Lord of creatures (Pragapati) are used at weddings; (but)
the betrothal (by the father or guardian) is the cause of (the
husband’s) dominion (over his wife).
153. The husband who wedded her with sacred texts, always
gives happiness to his wife, both in season and out of season,
in this world and in the next.
154. Though destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere),
or devoid of good qualities, (yet) a husband must be constantly
worshipped as a god by a faithful wife.
155. No sacrifice, no vow, no fast must be performed by women
apart (from their husbands); if a wife obeys her husband, she
will for that (reason alone) be exalted in heaven.
156. A faithful wife, who desires to dwell (after death)
with her husband, must never do anything that might displease
him who took her hand, whether he be alive or dead.
157. At her pleasure let her emaciate her body by (living
on) pure flowers, roots, and fruit; but she must never even
mention the name of another man after her husband has died.
158. Until death let her be patient (of hardships), self-controlled,
and chaste, and strive (to fulfil) that most excellent duty
which (is prescribed) for wives who have one husband only.
159. Many thousands of Brahmanas who were chaste from their
youth, have gone to heaven without continuing their race.
160. A virtuous wife who after the death of her husband constantly
remains chaste, reaches heaven, though she have no son, just
like those chaste men.
161. But a woman who from a desire to have offspring violates
her duty towards her (deceased) husband, brings on herself disgrace
in this world, and loses her place with her husband (in heaven).
162. Offspring begotten by another man is here not (considered
lawful), nor (does offspring begotten) on another man’s wife
(belong to the begetter), nor is a second husband anywhere prescribed
for virtuous women.
163. She who cohabits with a man of higher caste, forsaking
her own husband who belongs to a lower one, will become contemptible
in this world, and is called a remarried woman (parapurva).
164. By violating her duty towards her husband, a wife is
disgraced in this world, (after death) she enters the womb of
a jackal, and is tormented by diseases (the punishment of) her
sin.
165. She who, controlling her thoughts, words, and deeds,
never slights her lord, resides (after death) with her husband
(in heaven), and is called a virtuous (wife).
166. In reward of such conduct, a female who controls her
thoughts, speech, and actions, gains in this (life) highest
renown, and in the next (world) a place near her husband.
167. A twice-born man, versed in the sacred law, shall burn
a wife of equal caste who conducts herself thus and dies before
him, with (the sacred fires used for) the Agnihotra, and with
the sacrificial implements.
168. Having thus, at the funeral, given the sacred fires
to his wife who dies before him, he may marry again, and again
kindle (the fires).
169. (Living) according to the (preceding) rules, he must
never neglect the five (great) sacrifices, and, having taken
a wife, he must dwell in (his own) house during the second period
of his life.
CHAPTER VI.
1. A twice-born Snataka, who has thus lived according to
the law in the order of householders, may, taking a firm resolution
and keeping his organs in subjection, dwell in the forest, duly
(observing the rules given below).
2. When a householder sees his (skin) wrinkled, and (his
hair) white, and. the sons of his sons, then he may resort to
the forest.
3. Abandoning all food raised by cultivation, and all his
belongings, he may depart into the forest, either committing
his wife to his sons, or accompanied by her.
4. Taking with him the sacred fire and the implements required
for domestic (sacrifices), he may go forth from the village
into the forest and reside there, duly controlling his senses.
5. Let him offer those five great sacrifices according to
the rule, with various kinds of pure food fit for ascetics,
or with herbs, roots, and fruit.
6. Let him wear a skin or a tattered garment; let him bathe
in the evening or in the morning; and let him always wear (his
hair in) braids, the hair on his body, his beard, and his nails
(being unclipped).
7. Let him perform the Bali-offering with such food as he
eats, and give alms according to his ability; let him honour
those who come to his hermitage with alms consisting of water,
roots, and fruit.
8. Let him be always industrious in privately reciting the
Veda; let him be patient of hardships, friendly (towards all),
of collected mind, ever liberal and never a receiver of gifts,
and compassionate towards all living creatures.
9. Let him offer, according to the law, the Agnihotra with
three sacred fires, never omitting the new-moon and full-moon
sacrifices at the proper time.
10. Let him also offer the Nakshatreshti, the Agrayana, and
the Katurmasya (sacrifices), as well as the Turayana and likewise
the Dakshayana, in due order.
11. With pure grains, fit for ascetics, which grow in spring
and in autumn, and which he himself has collected, let him severally
prepare the sacrificial cakes (purodasa) and the boiled messes
(karu), as the law directs.
12. Having offered those most pure sacrificial viands, consisting
of the produce of the forest, he may use the remainder for himself,
(mixed with) salt prepared by himself.
13. Let him eat vegetables that grow on dry land or in water,
flowers, roots, and fruits, the productions of pure trees, and
oils extracted from forest-fruits.
14. Let him avoid honey, flesh, and mushrooms growing on
the ground (or elsewhere, the vegetables called) Bhustrina,
and Sigruka, and the Sleshmantaka fruit.
15. Let him throw away in the month of Asvina the food of
ascetics, which he formerly collected, likewise his worn-out
clothes and his vegetables, roots, and fruit.
16. Let him not eat anything (grown on) ploughed (land),
though it may have been thrown away by somebody, nor roots and
fruit grown in a village, though (he may be) tormented (by hunger).
17. He may eat either what has been cooked with fire, or
what has been ripened by time; he either may use a stone for
grinding, or his teeth may be his mortar.
18. He may either at once (after his daily meal) cleanse
(his vessel for collecting food), or lay up a store sufficient
for a month, or gather what suffices for six months or for a
year.
19. Having collected food according to his ability, he may
either eat at night (only), or in the day-time (only), or at
every fourth meal-time, or at every eighth.
20. Or he may live according to the rule of the lunar penance
(Kandrayana, daily diminishing the quantity of his food) in
the bright (half of the month) and (increasing it) in the dark
(half); or he may eat on the last days of each fortnight, once
(a day only), boiled barley-gruel.
21. Or he may constantly subsist on flowers, roots, and fruit
alone, which have been ripened by time and have fallen spontaneously,
following the rule of the (Institutes) of Vikhanas.
22. Let him either roll about on the ground, or stand during
the day on tiptoe, (or) let him alternately stand and sit down;
going at the Savanas (at sunrise, at midday, and at sunset)
to water in the forest (in order to bathe).
23. In summer let him expose himself to the heat of five
fires, during the rainy season live under the open sky, and
in winter be dressed in wet clothes, (thus) gradually increasing
(the rigour of) his austerities.
24. When he bathes at the three Savanas (sunrise, midday,
and sunset), let him offer libations of water to the manes and
the gods, and practising harsher and harsher austerities, let
him dry up his bodily frame.
25. Having reposited the three sacred fires in himself, according
to the prescribed rule, let him live without a fire, without
a house, wholly silent, subsisting on roots and fruit,
26. Making no effort (to procure) things that give pleasure,
chaste, sleeping on the bare ground, not caring for any shelter,
dwelling at the roots of trees.
27. From Brahmanas (who live as) ascetics, let him receive
alms, (barely sufficient) to support life, or from other householders
of the twice-born (castes) who reside in the forest.
28. Or (the hermit) who dwells in the forest may bring (food)
from a village, receiving it either in a hollow dish (of leaves),
in (his naked) hand, or in a broken earthen dish, and may eat
eight mouthfuls.
29. These and other observances must a Brahmana who dwells
in the forest diligently practise, and in order to attain complete
(union with) the (supreme) Soul, (he must study) the various
sacred texts contained in the Upanishads,
30. (As well as those rites and texts) which have been practised
and studied by the sages (Rishis), and by Brahmana householders,
in order to increase their knowledge (of Brahman), and their
austerity, and in order to sanctify their bodies;
31. Or let him walk, fully determined and going straight
on, in a north-easterly direction, subsisting on water and air,
until his body sinks to rest.
32. A Brahmana, having got rid of his body by one of those
modes practised by the great sages, is exalted in the world
of Brahman, free from sorrow and fear.
33. But having thus passed the third part of (a man’s natural
term of) life in the forest, he may live as an ascetic during
the fourth part of his existence, after abandoning all attachment
to worldly objects.
34. He who after passing from order to order, after offering
sacrifices and subduing his senses, becomes, tired with (giving)
alms and offerings of food, an ascetic, gains bliss after death.
35. When he has paid the three debts, let him apply his mind
to (the attainment of) final liberation; he who seeks it without
having paid (his debts) sinks downwards.
36. Having studied the Vedas in accordance with the rule,
having begat sons according to the sacred law, and having offered
sacrifices according to his ability, he may direct his mind
to (the attainment of) final liberation.
37. A twice-born man who seeks final liberation, without
having studied the Vedas, without having begotten sons, and
without having offered sacrifices, sinks downwards.
38. Having performed the Ishti, sacred to the Lord of creatures
(Pragapati), where (he gives) all his property as the sacrificial
fee, having reposited the sacred fires in himself, a Brahmana
may depart from his house (as an ascetic).
39. Worlds, radiant in brilliancy, become (the portion) of
him who recites (the texts regarding) Brahman and departs from
his house (as an ascetic), after giving a promise of safety
to all created beings.
40. For that twice-born man, by whom not the smallest danger
even is caused to created beings, there will be no danger from
any (quarter), after he is freed from his body.
41. Departing from his house fully provided with the means
of purification (Pavitra), let him wander about absolutely silent,
and caring nothing for enjoyments that may be offered (to him).
42. Let him always wander alone, without any companion, in
order to attain (final liberation), fully understanding that
the solitary (man, who) neither forsakes nor is forsaken, gains
his end.
43. He shall neither possess a fire, nor a dwelling, he may
go to a village for his food, (he shall be) indifferent to everything,
firm of purpose, meditating (and) concentrating his mind on
Brahman.
44. A potsherd (instead of an alms-bowl), the roots of trees
(for a dwelling), coarse worn-out garments, life in solitude
and indifference towards everything, are the marks of one who
has attained liberation.
45. Let him not desire to die, let him not desire to live;
let him wait for (his appointed) time, as a servant (waits)
for the payment of his wages.
46. Let him put down his foot purified by his sight, let
him drink water purified by (straining with) a cloth, let him
utter speech purified by truth, let him keep his heart pure.
47. Let him patiently bear hard words, let him not insult
anybody, and let him not become anybody’s enemy for the sake
of this (perishable) body.
48. Against an angry man let him not in return show anger,
let him bless when he is cursed, and let him not utter speech,
devoid of truth, scattered at the seven gates.
49. Delighting in what refers to the Soul, sitting (in the
postures prescribed by the Yoga), independent (of external help),
entirely abstaining from sensual enjoyments, with himself for
his only companion, he shall live in this world, desiring the
bliss (of final liberation).
50. Neither by (explaining) prodigies and omens, nor by skill
in astrology and palmistry, nor by giving advice and by the
exposition (of the Sastras), let him ever seek to obtain alms.
51. Let him not (in order to beg) go near a house filled
with hermits, Brahmanas, birds, dogs, or other mendicants.
52. His hair, nails, and beard being clipped, carrying an
alms-bowl, a staff, and a water-pot, let him continually wander
about, controlling himself and not hurting any creature.
53. His vessels shall not be made of metal, they shall be
free from fractures; it is ordained that they shall be cleansed
with water, like (the cups, called) Kamasa, at a sacrifice.
54. A gourd, a wooden bowl, an earthen (dish), or one made
of split cane, Manu, the son of Svayambhu, has declared (to
be) vessels (suitable) for an ascetic.
55. Let him go to beg once (a day), let him not be eager
to obtain a large quantity (of alms); for an ascetic who eagerly
seeks alms, attaches himself also to sensual enjoyments.
56. When no smoke ascends from (the kitchen), when the pestle
lies motionless, when the embers have been extinguished, when
the people have finished their meal, when the remnants in the
dishes have been removed, let the ascetic always go to beg.
57. Let him not be sorry when he obtains nothing, nor rejoice
when he obtains (something), let him (accept) so much only as
will sustain life, let him not care about the (quality of his)
utensils.
58. Let him disdain all (food) obtained in consequence of
humble salutations, (for) even an ascetic who has attained final
liberation, is bound (with the fetters of the Samsara) by accepting
(food given) in consequence of humble salutations.
59. By eating little, and by standing and sitting in solitude,
let him restrain his senses, if they are attracted by sensual
objects.
60. By the restraint of his senses, by the destruction of
love and hatred, and by the abstention from injuring the creatures,
he becomes fit for immortality.
61. Let him reflect on the transmigrations of men, caused
by their sinful deeds, on their falling into hell, and on the
torments in the world of Yama,
62. On the separation from their dear ones, on their union
with hated men, on their being overpowered by age and being
tormented with diseases,
63. On the departure of the individual soul from this body
and its new birth in (another) womb, and on its wanderings through
ten thousand millions of existences,
64. On the infliction of pain on embodied (spirits), which
is caused by demerit, and the gain of eternal bliss, which is
caused by the attainment of their highest aim, (gained through)
spiritual merit.
65. By deep meditation let him recognise the subtile nature
of the supreme Soul, and its presence in all organisms, both
the highest and the lowest.
66. To whatever order he may be attached, let him, though
blemished (by a want of the external marks), fulfil his duty,
equal-minded towards all creatures; (for) the external mark
(of the order) is not the cause of (the acquisition of) merit.
67. Though the fruit of the Kataka tree (the clearing-nut)
makes water clear, yet the (latter) does not become limpid in
consequence of the mention of the (fruit’s) name.
68. In order to preserve living creatures, let him always
by day and by night, even with pain to his body, walk, carefully
scanning the ground.
69. In order to expiate (the death) of those creatures which
he unintentionally injures by day or by night, an ascetic shall
bathe and perform six suppressions of the breath.
70. Three suppressions of the breath even, performed according
to the rule, and accompanied with the (recitation of the) Vyahritis
and of the syllable Om, one must know to be the highest (form
of) austerity for every Brahmana.
71. For as the impurities of metallic ores, melted in the
blast (of a furnace), are consumed, even so the taints of the
organs are destroyed through the suppression of the breath.
72. Let him destroy the taints through suppressions of the
breath, (the production of) sin by fixed attention, all sensual
attachments by restraining (his senses and organs), and all
qualities that are not lordly by meditation.
73. Let him recognise by the practice of meditation the progress
of the individual soul through beings of various kinds, (a progress)
hard to understand for unregenerate men.
74. He who possesses the true insight (into the nature of
the world), is not fettered by his deeds; but he who is destitute
of that insight, is drawn into the circle of births and deaths.
75. By not injuring any creatures, by detaching the senses
(from objects of enjoyment), by the rites prescribed in the
Veda, and by rigorously practising austerities, (men) gain that
state (even) in this (world).
76-77. Let him quit this dwelling, composed of the five elements,
where the bones are the beams, which is held together by tendons
(instead of cords), where the flesh and the blood are the mortar,
which is thatched with the skin, which is foul-smelling, filled
with urine and ordure, infested by old age and sorrow, the seat
of disease, harassed by pain, gloomy with passion, and perishable.
78. He who leaves this body, (be it by necessity) as a tree
(that is torn from) the river-bank, or (freely) like a bird
(that) quits a tree, is freed from the misery (of this world,
dreadful like) a shark.
79. Making over (the merit of his own) good actions to his
friends and (the guilt of) his evil deeds to his enemies, he
attains the eternal Brahman by the practice of meditation.
80. When by the disposition (of his heart) he becomes indifferent
to all objects, he obtains eternal happiness both in this world
and after death.
81. He who has in this manner gradually given up all attachments
and is freed from all the pairs (of opposites), reposes in Brahman
alone.
82. All that has been declared (above) depends on meditation;
for he who is not proficient in the knowledge of that which
refers to the Soul reaps not the full reward of the performance
of rites.
83. Let him constantly recite (those texts of) the Veda which
refer to the sacrifice, (those) referring to the deities, and
(those) which treat of the Soul and are contained in the concluding
portions of the Veda (Vedanta).
84. That is the refuge of the ignorant, and even that (the
refuse) of those who know (the meaning of the Veda); that is
(the protection) of those who seek (bliss in) heaven and of
those who seek endless (beatitude).
85. A twice-born man who becomes an ascetic, after the successive
performance of the above-mentioned acts, shakes off sin here
below and reaches the highest Brahman.
86. Thus the law (valid) for self-restrained ascetics has
been explained to you; now listen to the (particular) duties
of those who give up (the rites prescribed by) the Veda.
87. The student, the householder, the hermit, and the ascetic,
these (constitute) four separate orders, which all spring from
(the order of) householders.
88. But all (or) even (any of) these orders, assumed successively
in accordance with the Institutes (of the sacred law), lead
the Brahmana who acts by the preceding (rules) to the highest
state.
89. And in accordance with the precepts of the Veda and of
the Smriti, the housekeeper is declared to be superior to all
of them; for he supports the other three.
90. As all rivers, both great and small, find a resting-place
in the ocean, even so men of all orders find protection with
householders
91. By twice-born men belonging to (any of) these four orders,
the tenfold law must be ever carefully obeyed.
92. Contentment, forgiveness, self-control, abstention from
unrighteously appropriating anything, (obedience to the rules
of) purification, coercion of the organs, wisdom, knowledge
(of the supreme Soul), truthfulness, and abstention from anger,
(form) the tenfold law.
93. Those Brahmanas who thoroughly study the tenfold law,
and after studying obey it, enter the highest state.
94. A twice-born man who, with collected mind, follows the
tenfold law and has paid his (three) debts, may, after learning
the Vedanta according to the prescribed rule, become an ascetic.
95. Having given up (the performance of) all rites, throwing
off the guilt of his (sinful) acts, subduing his organs and
having studied the Veda, he may live at his ease under the protection
of his son.
96. He who has thus given up (the performance of) all rites,
who is solely intent on his own (particular) object, (and) free
from desires, destroys his guilt by his renunciation and obtains
the highest state.
97. Thus the fourfold holy law of Brahmanas, which after
death (yields) imperishable rewards, has been declared to you;
now learn the duty of kings.