মনুস্মৃতি – অধ্যায় ০৩

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.