Apaddharmanushasana Parva — The distribution of wealth among Brahmanas

Bhishma said Wealth and knowledge, O Bharata, should be given to such pious and impoverished Brahmanas as have been robbed of their wealth (by thieves), as are engaged in the celebration of sacrifices, as are well-read in all the Vedas, and as are desirous of acquiring the merit of righteousness, so that they may satisfy their duties to preceptors and the Pitris, and spend their days in reciting and studying the scriptures.

Only the Dakshina, O best of the Bharatas, should be given to those Brahmanas who are not poor. Uncooked food should be given beyond the limits of the sacrificial altar, to those Brahmanas that have fallen away in consequence of their sinful deeds) from their own dignity.

The Brahmanas represent the Vedas themselves and all the sacrifices with profuse presents. Desirous of excelling one another, they always celebrate sacrifices, actuated by their various desires. The king should, therefore, make presents of various sorts of valuable wealth to them.

That Brahmana who has sufficient stores for feeding his family for three or more years, deserves to drink the Soma.

If inspite of the presence of a pious king on the throne, the sacrifice undertaken by any one, but especially by a Brahmana, cannot be completed for want of only a fulptrt of the estimated cost, then the king should, for the completion of that sacrifice, take away from his relatives the wealth of a Vaishya who has a farge flock of cattle but who is averse from sacrifices and abstains from drinking Soma.

The Shudra is not competent to celebrate a sacrifice. The king should, therefore, take away (wealth for such a purpose) from a Shudra's house.

The king should, also, unscrupulously take away from their kinsmen the wealth of him who does not celebrate sacrifices although he has a hundred kine, and also of him who does not perform sacrifices although he has a thousand kine.

The king should, always, publicly take away the wealth of a person who does not perform charities. By acting in this wise the King acquires great merit.

Listen again to me. That Brahmana who has been compelled by want to fast for three days, may take away without permission, according to the rule of a person who cares only for toclay and not for the morrow, only what is necessary for a single mcal, from the husking tub or the field or the garden or any other place of even a degraded man. He should, however, whether asked or unasked, inform the king of his deed.

If the king knows his own duty he should not punish such a Brahmana. He should remember that a Brahmana becomes stricken with hunger only through the fault of the Kshatriya.

Having learnt a Brahmana's learning and conduct, the king should provide for his living and protect him as a father protects his own begotten son.

On the expiry of every year, one should celebrate the Vaishyanara sacrifice. Those who are conversant with religious codes say that the practice of an alternative act, does not destroy virtue.

Fearing death in seasons of distress, the Vishvedevas, the Saddhyas, the Brahmanas, and great Rishis, do not hesitate to follow the alternative provisions laid down in the scriptures.

That man, however, who while able to live according to the first provision, as laid down above, follows the alternative, comes to be known as a wicked person and never succeeds in acquiring any happiness in heaven.

A Brahmana conversant with the Vedas should mention his power and knowledge to the king. Comparing again the power of a Brahmana with that of the king, the former will always be found to be superior to the latter. never

Therefore the power of the Brahmanas can hardly be borne or resisted by a king. The Brahmana is said to be creator, king, ordainer, and god.

No abusive word or dry speeches, should be spoken to a Brahmana. The Kshatriya should get over all his difficulties by the help of the power of his arms.

The Vaishya and the Shudra should get over their difficulties by riches; the Brahmana should do so by Mantras and Homa. None of these, viz., a maiden, a young woman, a person unacquainted with Mantras, an ignorant person, or one who is impure, is competent to pour libations on the sacrificial fire. If any of these do so he or she is sure to go to hell, with him on whose behalf they act. Therefore none but a Brahmana well-read in the Vedas and skilled in all sacrifices should pour sacrificial libations.

They who are well-acquainted with the scriptures hold that man who, having lighted the sacrificial fire, does not give away the dedicated food as Dakshina, is not the kindler of a sacrificial fire,

A person should, after having controlled his senses, and with proper devotion, do all the meritorious acts. One should never adore gods in sacrifices in which no Dakshina is given.

A sacrifice not completed with Dakshina, encompasses the destruction of one's children, animals, and heaven. Such a sacrifice destroys also the senses, the glory the achievements, and the very life, itself.

Those Brahmanas who know women in their season, or who never celebrate sacrifices, or whose families have no members well-read in the Vedas, are considered as Shudras in act.

That Brahmana who, having married a Shudra girl, lives for twelve years continually in a village which has only a well to give water, becomes a Shudra in act.

That Brahmana who brings to his bed a maiden, or allows a Shudra, knowing him as deserving of respect, to sit upon the same carpet with him, should sit on a bed of dry grass behind some Kshatriya or Vaishya and show him respect in that way. It is in this way that he can be purified. Hear, O king, my words on this subject.

The sin that a Brahmana perpetrates in one night by respectfully serving a member of a lower caste or by playing with him in the same spot or on the same bed, is purified by observing the practice of sitting behind by observing the practice of sitting behind a Kshatriya or a Vaishya on a bed of dry grass for three years continually.

An untruth spoken for jest is not sinful; nor one spoken at the time of wedding; nor one spoken for doing good to one's preceptor; nor one spoken for saving one's own life. These five sorts of falsehood in speech, it has been said, are not sinful.

One may gain useful knowledge from even a person of degraded calling, with devotion and reverence. One may take up gold, unhesitatingly from even an unclean spot.

A woman who is the ornament of her sex may be married from even a vile race. Nectar, if extracted from poison, may be drunk; women, jewels and other valuables, as also water, can never, according to the scriptural injunction, be impure or unclean.

For the good of Brahmanas and kine, and on occasions when mixture of castes takes place, even a Vaishya may take up weapons for his own safety.

Drinking wine, killing a Brahmana, and the violation of the preceptor's bed, are sins when committed consciously, can never be expiated. The only expiation laid down for them is death.

The sarne may be said of stealing gold, and the theft of a Brahmana's property. By drinking winc, by knowing prohibited women, by mingling with a degraded person, by knowing a Brahmana's woman, one becomes for ever fallen.

By associating with a fallen person for one whole year in sacrifices and teaching and sexual intercourse, one becomes fallen. One, however, does not become so by associating with a fallen person in riding on the same car, sitting on the same seat, and eating in the same line.

Excluding the five heinous sins that have been mentioned above, all other sins have expiations. Expiating those sins according to the ordinances laid down for them, one should not commit them again.

Except all those, O Bharata! Many other sins have been described as removable by penance. Thus he gives up the sinful habit. Regarding those who have been guilty of the first three of these five sins, (namely, drinking wine, killing a Brahmana, and violation of the preceptor's bed), their (surviving) kinsmen have no restrictions about taking food and wearing ornaments, even if their funeral rites remain unperformed when they die. The surviving kinsmen need make no scruple about such things at such times.

A virtuous man should, while observing his duties, discard his very friends and elders. In fact, so long as they do not perform expiation, the virtuous should not even talk with those sinners. A man who has committed sins dissipates them by acting virtuously afterwards and by penances. By calling a thief a thief, one conimits the sin of theft.

By calling a person thief who, however, is not a thief, one commits a sin just double the sin of theft. The maiden who spoils her virginity incurs three-fourths of the sin of Brahmanicide, while the man who knows her incurs a sin equal to a fourth part of that of Brahmanicide.

By speaking against Brahmanas or by striking them, one sinks in infamy for a hundred years.

By slaying a Brahmana one undergoes the torments of hell for a thousand years. No one should, therefore, speak ill of a Brahmana or slay him.

If a man wounds a Brahmana with a weapon, he will have to live in hell for as many years as the grains of dust that are soaked by the blood flowing from the body of the wounded.

One guilty of foeticide becomes purified if he dies of wounds received in battle fought for the sake of kine and Brahmanas. He may also be purified by casting his person on a burning fire.

A drinker of spirituous liquors becomes purified by drinking hot spirit. He is purified by his death, brought on by that hot drink, in the other world. A Brahmana stained by such a sin attains regions of felicity by such a course, and such a course only, and not by any other.

The wicked and sinful wretch who violates the bed of a preceptor, becomes purified by the death that results from embracing a heated iron statue of a female.

Or, emasculating himself and cutting off his organ, and bearing them in his hands, he should go straight way towards the south-west and then give up his ghost.

Or, he may cleanse himself of all his sins, by meeting with death for the sake of benefiting a Brahmana. Or, he may regain esteem both in this world and in the next by performing a Horse-sacrifice or a Cowsacrifice or an Agnishtoma.

The killer of a Brahmana should practise the vow of Brahmacharya for twelve years, and devoting himself to penances, he should wander, holding in his hands the skull of the killed all the time and the time and proclaiming his sin to all. on

He should even adopt such a course, devoted to penances and leading the life of an ascetic. Even such is the expiation provided for one who skills a woman quick with child, knowing her condition.

The man that knowingly kills such a woman incurs double the sin that follows from Brahmanicide. A drinker of spirituous liquor should live spare diet, practising Brahmacharya vows, and sleep on the naked earth, and perform, for more than three years the sacrifice next to the Agnishtoma. He should then present a thousand kine with one bull (to a good Brahmana). He would then regain his purily by doing all this.

Having killed a Vaishya one Vaishya one should perform such a sacrifice for two years and present a hundred kine with one bull. Having killed a Shudra, one should perform such a sacrifice for one year and present a hundred kine with one bull. Having killed a dog or a bear or a camel, one should perform the same penance that is laid down for killing a Shudra.

For killing a cat, a chasa, a frog, a crow, a reptile or a rat, it has been said, one incurs the sin of animal slaughter O king.

I shall now tell you of other kinds of expiations one after the other. For all minor sins one should repent or practise some vow for one year.

For ravishing the wife of a Brahmana well read in the Vedas, one should, for three years, practise the vow of Brahmacharya, living on spare diet at the fourth part of the day. For ravishing any other woman one should undergo similar penances for two years.

For enjoying oneself in the company of a woman as by sitting with her on the same spot or on the same seat, one should live only on water for three days. By doing this he may purify himself of his sin. The same is laid down for one who befouls a burning fire (by throwing impure things on it.)

He who, without sufficient reason leaves his father or mother or preceptor, forsooth, becomes degraded, O ye scion of Kuru's race, as is laid down in the scriptures. Only food and clothes shall be given to a wife guilty of fornication or one confined in a prison. Indeed, the vows that are laid down for a male person guilty of fornication should also be forced on a woman who is as well guilty of the same.

That woman who abandoning a husband of a superior caste, commits adultery with a vile person (of a lower order), should be made by the king to be devoured by dogs in a public place in the midst of a large number of spectators.

A wise king should make the male person, committing adultery under such circumstances to be placed upon a heated bed of iron and then, placing woods underneath, burn the sinner thereon.

The same punishment, O king, holds for the woman who is guilty of adultery. The wicked sinner who does not perform expiatory rite within a year of the perpetration of the sin incurs demerit that is double of what attaches to the original sin.

One who mixes with such a person for two years must walk over the Earth, devoting himself to penances and living upon alms. One mixing with a sinner for four years should follow such a mode of life for five years.

If a young brother marries before his elder brother, then the younger brother, the elder brother, and the woman that is married, all three, on account of such wedding, become degraded.

All of them should observe the vows laid down for a person who has neglected his sacrificial fire, or practise the of Chandrayana for month, or some other painful vow, for purging themselves off their sin.

The younger brother, marrying should give his wife to his unmarried elder brother. Having acquired the permission of the elder brother, the younger brother may take back his wife. By such means all three may be cleansed of their sin.

By killing animals except a cow, the killer is not stained. The learned hold that man has supremacy over all the lower animals.

Holding in his hand a yak-tail and an earthen pot, a sinner should go about, giving a publicity to his sin. He should every day beg of only seven families, and live upon what may thus be got. By doing this for twelve days he may be purified of his sin. He who cannot hold in his hand the yak-tail while practising this vow should become a mendicant (as stated above) for one whole year.

Amongst men such expiation ranks foremost. The practice of charity has been sanctioned in all such cases for those that are able to practise charity.

Those who have faith and virtue may purify themselves by giving away only one cow.

One who eats or drinks the flesh, ordure, or urine of a dog, a boar, a man, a cock or a camel must have the ceremony of putting on the sacred thread performed again. If a Somadrinking Brahmana smells alcohol from the mouth of one who has drunk it, he should drink warm water for three days or warm milk for the same period. Or, drinking warm water for three days he should live for that period upon air alone. These are the eternal injunctions prescribed for the expiation of sin, especially for a Brahmana who has perpetrated these sins through ignorance and want of judgement.