Manava Dharmashastra 3.123

3.123

satyapi śrāddhaprakaraṇe vākyādbhokturayaṃ doṣānuvādaḥ | tathā coktaṃ "tasmādavidvān bibhiyādyasmāttasmātpratigrahāt” iti | śūlaṣṭyarthāḥ śrāyudhaviśeṣāḥ, ayrayoguḍaḥ āyasaḥ piṇḍaḥ | yadarthaṃ śrāddhamārabdhaṃ sa dhīmān taptāyaḥpiṇḍān yamapuruṣairāśyate | vyāsadarśanāttu bhojayiturayaṃ doṣo na bhoktuḥ | na pitṝṇāṃ na tāvanmṛtānāmanyakṛtena pratiṣedhātikrameṇa doṣasambandho yuktaḥ, akṛtābhyāgamādidoṣopapatteḥ | yadi hi putreṇa tādṛśo brāhmaṇo bhojitāḥ ko'parādho mṛtānām | "nanu copakāro'pi putrakṛtaḥ pitṝṇāmanena nyāyena na prāpnoti” | na prāpnuyādyadi tādarthyena śrāddhādi noditaṃ syāt | iha tu nāsti codanā, piturupakārakāmairnaiva kartavyaṃ, śyenavat | yattu "tāvato grasate preta" iti tadbhojayitṛsambandhe'pyupapadyate | 'yasya brāhmaṇa īdṛśaḥ śrāddhaṃ bhuṃkte sa idaṃ phalamāpnoti' iti yuktaḥ sambandhaḥ | prākaraṇikaścāyamavidvadbhojanapratiṣedhaḥ | tadatikramaṇe karmavaiguṇyaṃ, tadvaiguṇye ca śrāddhādhikārātrivṛttireva doṣaḥ | pitṝṇāṃ śrāddhopakārālābhaḥ | tato'pi vidhyatikrame putrasya yuktaḥ pratyavāyaḥ | kiṃ tarhi tadbhagavato vyāsasya vacanam-"grasate yāvataḥ piṇḍān yasya vai haviṣo'vidaḥ | grasate tāvataḥ śūlān gatvā vaivasvatakṣayam” | pāṭhāntaraṃ pretyeti | bhoktureva pretyatā | nāviduṣā daivapitryayorbhoktavyam |

As many mouthfuls as the person ignorant of the Veda swallows out of the offerings to gods and Pitṛs, so many flaming spikes, spears and iron-balls does the man swallow after death.—(133)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
Even though it is the śrāddha that forms the subject-matter of the present context, yet the present verse describes the evil results occurring to the eater; it is to this effect that it has been declared that ‘for this reason should the ignorant person fear the acceptance of gifts from this and that person.’

‘Spikes and spears’ are the names of particular weapons. Such a person is made by the attendants of the Lord of Death to eat red-hot iron-balls.

According to Vyāsa’s view, the evil result accrues to the person offering the focal, and not to the eater, nor to the ancestors. Because it cannot be right to connect the dead ancestors with the evil arising from the disobeying, by another person, of the prohibition (of the feeding ignorant persons); as in that case, there would be the absurdity of a man suffering what he has not earned. If an ignorant person has been fed by the son, what fault is there of his dead ancestors?

“But by this same reasoning the benefit also of the śrāddha should not accrue to the ancestors.”