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Dakshasmriti 1

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English

Contents

1.p1

Obeisance to glorious Gaṇeśa.

1.p2

Now, at the beginning, the description of the stages of life.

1.1

Knowing the essential truth of all dharma and ends of life, best among all knowers of the Veda, / master of all branches of knowledge, was the Prajāpati named Dakṣa.

1.2

Creation and dissolution, maintenance and withdrawal— / the Self should abide in the Self; the Self is established in Brahman.

1.3

For the benefit of the chaste student, the householder, / the forest hermit, and the renunciant, Dakṣa formulated this treatise.

1.4

From birth until eight years of age, a child is known / to be equal to an embryo, showing only bodily manifestation.

1.5

In what may or may not be eaten, in what may or may not be drunk, in what should or should not be spoken, and in falsehood, / there is no fault at that time, as long as he is not initiated.

1.6

Once initiated, there is fault through censured deeds performed [by him]; / but he is not subject to legal proceedings as long as he is under sixteen years of age.

1.7

When he undertakes the Veda and observes the vows of the Veda, / he remains a chaste student; thereafter, having bathed, he becomes a householder.

1.8

Two kinds of chaste student are recorded in the treatise by the wise: / the first is the transitional student, and the second is recorded as the lifelong student.

1.9

One who, having entered the householder stage of life, would become a chaste student again / is neither a renunciant nor a forest hermit; he is excluded from all stages of life.

1.10

A twice-born should not remain even for a single day as one without an āśrama; / for remaining without an stage of life, he becomes in need of expiation.

1.11

One who is devoted to muttered recitation, fire offering, gift, and Vedic self-recitation, / fallen from his stage of life, does not attain its fruit even while performing it. / Indeed, progression for the three is in direct order, never in reverse order.

1.12

He who proceeds in reverse order—none is a worse sinner than he. / The chaste student is characterized by the girdle, antelope skin, and staff;

1.13

the householder by sacrifices to the gods and the like; the forest hermit by [uncut] nails and body hair; / and the renunciant by the triple staff: these are their distinct characteristics.

1.14

He who lacks this characteristic is in need of expiation and has no stage of life. / The sequence of rituals had not been spoken, nor the time recorded by the sages; / Dakṣa himself spoke it for the benefit of the twice-born.

1.14.p1

Thus ends the first chapter in the treatise on dharma by Dakṣa.

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