Manava Dharmashastra 3.130

3.130

saṅgatāni mitrabhāvān yaḥ kurute śrāddhena mohāt śāstrārthamajānanaḥ sa svargāt cyavate | na prāpnoti svargamityarthaḥ | asambandhasāmānyāt cyavata ityucyate | yathā prāptaḥ svargaṃ tataścyutaḥ svargeṇa na sambadhyate evamayamapi | anena ca śrāddhaphalāprāptireva kathyate | sarvaśeṣatā hi tathā bhavati | śrāddhamitraḥ śrāddhaṃ mitramasyeti | mitralābhahetutvāt śrāddhameva 'mitram'-ato bahuvrīhiḥ | dvijānāmadhamaḥ | dvijagrahaṇaṃ pradarśanārtham | śūdreṇāpi na mitrāṇi bhojanīyāni | "nanu cābrāhmaṇyādeva śūdrasya mitratvaprāptirnāsti |" kenaiṣā paribhāṣā kṛtā, 'śūdrasya brāhmaṇairmitrairna bhavitavyam' | "samānajātīyānāmeva mitravyavahāro nottamajātīyānāṃ hīnajātīyaiḥ saheti" cet | etadapi na | evaṃ hyāha śvetaketurha vā āruṇeyaḥ "asti me pañcāleṣu kṣatriyo mitram" iti | kiṃ ca sambandhopalakṣaṇārthaṃ ca mitrapratiṣedho vyākhyātaḥ | bhavanti ca śūdrasya brāhmaṇā arthasambandhinaḥ, pāraśavasya jñātayo'pi |

The man who, through folly, makes friendships by means of Śrāddhas,—that meanest of twice-born men, having the Śrāddha for his friend, falls from the regions of heaven.—(140)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Friendships’—friendly relations—he ‘who make’ ‘by means of Śrāddhas’ ‘through folly—i.e., being ignorant of what is contained in the scriptures,—falls from heaven,’—i.e., never reaches heaven; the root ‘fall’ being used in the sense of want of connection in general; the sense being ‘just as a man on reaching heaven and falling from there loses all connection with it, so this man also.’ What is meant is that the man does not obtain the reward for performing the śrāddha. in this sense alone can the passage have any connection with all that has gone in the present context.

‘Having the. śrāddha for his friend;’—the śrāddha is spoken of as his friend, on account of its being the means of his acquiring a friend, it is in this sense that we have the Bahuvrīhi compound in ‘śrāddhamitra.’

‘The meanest of twice-born men;’—the ‘twice-born men’ have been mentioned only by way of illustration; in reality, the Śūdra also should not feed friends at śrādḍhas.

“The mere fact of the Śūdra being a non-Brāhmaṇa makes it impossible for him to feed a friend at śrāddhas (where only Brāhmaṇas are fed).”

But who has laid down the rule that Brāhmaṇas cannot be the friends of Śūdras?

“As a matter of fact, it is only persons of the same caste that are regarded as friends; so that there could be no friendship between persons, one of whom belongs to the higher and the other to the lower caste.”

This also is not true; since Śvetaketu, the son of Aruṇi, is declared to have said—‘In the Pañcāla country, there is a Kṣatriya friend of mine.’

Then again, it has already been explained that the term ‘friend’ in the present context has been used as connoting relationship in general. And Brāhmaṇas also come to have pecuniary relations with Śūdras; and to the Pāraśavaśūdra (the Śūdra born of a Brāhmaṇa father and a Śūdra mother), Brāhmaṇas hear even blood-relationships.—(140)