Imatges de pàgina
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gleanings of harvests, and so pious as to make obla- CHAP. tions in five distinct fires.

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101. Grass and earth to sit on, water to wash the 'feet, and, fourthly, affectionate speech are at no time 'deficient in the mansions of the good, although they may be indigent.

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102. A Brahmen, staying but one night as a guest, ' is called an atit' hi; since continuing so short a time, ' he is not even a sojourner for a whole tithi, or day ' of the moon.

103. 6 The house-keeper must not consider as an 'atiť'hi a mere visitor of the same town, or a Bráh

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men, who attends him on business, even though he come to the house where his wife dwells, and where his fires are kindled.

104. Should any house-keepers be so senseless, as 'to seek, on pretence of being guests, the food of others, they would fall after death, by reason of 'that baseness, to the condition of cattle belonging to 'the giver of such food.

105. No guest must be dismissed in the evening by a house-keeper; he is sent by the retiring sun; and, whether he come in fit season or unseasonably, he 'must not sojourn in the house without entertainment.

106. Let not himself eat any delicate food, without asking his guest to partake of it: the satisfaction of a guest

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a guest will assuredly bring the house-keeper wealth, reputation, long life, and a place in heaven.

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107. To the highest guests in the best form, to the 'lowest in the worst, to the equal, equally, let him offer seats, resting places, couches; giving them 'proportionable attendance, when they depart; and honour, as long as they stay.

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108. Should another guest arrive, when the oblation to all the Gods is concluded, for him also let the house-keeper prepare food, according to his ability; but let him not repeat his offerings to animated beings.

109. Let no Bráhmen guest proclaim his family and ancestry for the sake of an entertainment; since he, who thus proclaims them, is called by the wise a vántásí, or foul-feeding demon.

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110. A military man is not denominated a guest in the house of a Bráhmen; nor a man of the com'mercial or servile class; nor his familiar friend; nor his paternal kinsman; nor his preceptor :

111.' But if a warriour come to his house in the form of a guest, let food be prepared for him, according to his desire, after the before-mentioned • Bráhmens have eaten.

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Even to a merchant or a labourer, approaching his house in the manner of guests, let him give food,

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'food, showing marks of benevolence at the same time CHAP. with his domesticks:

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113. To others, as familiar friends, and the rest before-named, who come with affection to his place

of abode, let him serve a repast at the same time

with his wife and himself, having amply provided it according to his best means.

114. To a bride, and to a damsel, to the sick, and 'to pregnant women, let him give food, even before his guests, without hesitation.

115. The idiot, who first eats his own mess, without

having presented food to the persons just enumerated, 'knows not, while he crams, that he will himself be 'food after death for bandogs and vultures.

116. After the repast of the Bráhmen guest, of his kinsmen, and his domesticks, the married couple may 6 eat what remains untouched.

117. The house-keeper, having honoured spirits, holy sages, men, progenitors, and household gods, may feed on what remains after those oblations.

118. He, who eats what has been dressed for him'self only, eats nothing but sin: a repast on what remains after the sacrament is called the banquet of 'the good.

119. After a year from the reception of a visitor, 'let the house-keeper again honour a king, a sacrificer, ' a student returned from his preceptor, a son in-law, 6 a fa

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a father-in-law, and a maternal uncle, with a madhuperca, or present of honey, curds, and fruit.

120. A king or a Bráhmen arriving at the celebra'tion of the sacrament, are to be honoured with a madhuperca; but not, if the sacrament be over this ' is a settled rule.

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121. In the evening let the wife make an offering of the dressed food, but without pronouncing any "text of the Veda: one oblation to the assembled gods, thence named Vaiswadéva, is ordained both 'for evening and morning.

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122. FROM month to month, on the dark day of 'the moon, let a twice-born man, having finished the daily sacrament of the Pitris, and his fire being still blazing, perform the solemn sráddha, called pindán• wáhárya:

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123. Sages have distinguished the monthly sráddha by the title of anwáhárya, or after eaten, that is, eaten after the pinda, or ball of rice; and it must be 'performed with extreme care, and with flesh-meat in the best condition.

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124. What Bráhmens must be entertained at that ceremony, and who must be excepted, how many are to be fed, and with what sorts of food, on all 'those articles, without omission, I will fully discourse.

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125. At the sráddha of the gods he may entertain

two Bráhmens; at that of his father, paternal grand

father, and paternal great-grandfather, three; or one

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only at that of the gods, and one at that for his CHAP. 'three paternal ancestors: though he abound in wealth, let him not be solicitous to entertain a large

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126. A large company destroys these five advan6 tages; reverence to priests, propriety of time and place, purity, and the acquisition of virtuous Bráh6 mens: let him not therefore, endeavour to feed a superfluous number.

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127. This act of due honour to departed souls, on 'the dark day of the moon, is famed by the appellation of pitrya, or ancestral: the legal ceremony, in 'honour of departed spirits, rewards with continual 'fruit, a man engaged in such obsequies.

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128. Oblations to the gods and to ancestors should 'be given to a most reverend Bráhmen, perfectly con' versant with the Véda; since what is given to him produces the greatest reward.

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129. By entertaining one learned man at the oblation to the gods and at that to ancestors, he gains more exalted fruit than by feeding a multitude, who 'know not the holy texts.

130. Let him inquire into the ancestry, even in a remote degree, of a Bráhmen, who has advanced to the end of the Véda: such a man, if sprung fromgood men, is a fit partaker of oblations to gods and to ancestors; such a man may justly be called an atit' hi, or guest.

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131. Surely,

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