Markandeyapurana 28
English (machine translation) 28
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Contents
28.1
Jaḍa said: / Having heard his mother's words, that Alarka again / asked his mother about the duties of the castes and what duties belong to the stages of life.
28.2
Alarka said: / "O illustrious lady, you have spoken of that which pertains to the administration of kingship. / I desire to hear that dharma which consists of the castes and stages of life."
28.2.p1
Madālasā said:
28.3
"Giving, study, and sacrifice are considered threefold for a brahmin; / he has no other fourth dharma, except in times of distress.
28.4
Officiating at sacrifices, teaching in purity, and receiving gifts with purification: / this is rightly declared as his threefold livelihood.
28.5
Giving, study, and sacrifice—this dharma is also stated to be threefold / for a kṣatriya; protection of the earth and living by arms is his livelihood.
28.6
Giving, study, and sacrifice are likewise threefold for a vaiśya; / commerce, cattle-rearing, and agriculture are indeed his livelihood.
28.7
Giving, sacrifice, and service to the twice-born have been explained by me / as threefold for the śūdra also; craftwork is his livelihood,
28.8
as well as service to the twice-born, maintenance, and buying and selling. / These are stated as the duties of the castes; now hear those that pertain to the stages of life.
28.9
A man who does not fall away from the dharma of his own caste attains perfection; / falling away, he goes to hell after death from indulging in what is forbidden.
28.10
As long as the initiation ceremony is not performed for a twice-born, / so long, my son, are his desires, actions, speech, and food [unrestricted].
28.11
Having duly undergone initiation, a student of the Veda / should dwell in the teacher's house; his duty there is declared, learn it from me:
28.12
recitation of the Veda, attending to the fire, bathing, and begging for alms; / offering that food to the teacher, and eating with his permission always;
28.13
being energetic in the teacher's work, properly giving him satisfaction; / called by him, he should recite, intent upon it and with mind on nothing else.
28.14
Having learned one, two, or all the Vedas from the teacher's mouth, / permitted by him, having bowed, and then given a fee to the teacher,
28.15
desiring the stage of the householder, he should enter the householder stage of life, / or the forest-dweller stage, or the fourth, according to his own desire.
28.16
Or a twice-born may attain his end right there in the teacher's house; / in the absence of the teacher, [serving] his son; in the absence of his son, his disciple;
28.17
desirous of serving and free from conceit, he should dwell in the stage of the student of the Veda; / or having departed from there with the desire for the stage of the householder,
28.18
he should then lawfully marry a wife of unequal sage-lineage, of equal [caste], free from disease, / and without bodily defect, for the sake of the stage of the householder.
28.19
Having acquired wealth through his own work, and properly pleasing ancestors, / gods, and guests with devotion, he should also maintain his dependents:
28.20
servants, children, female relations, and also the miserable, blind, and fallen, / by giving food according to his ability, and likewise birds and beasts.
28.21
This is the duty of the householder, as is approaching [his wife] in the fertile period; / he must not omit the performance of the five sacrifices according to his ability.
28.22
A man himself should eat the remnant eaten by ancestors, gods, guests, and kinsmen, / together with his servants, attentively, according to his means.
28.23
This householder stage of life has been declared in outline by me; / I shall now tell you the duty of the forest-dweller; let it be comprehended.
28.24
Having seen the continuation of his offspring and the bending [of his body with age], / a wise man should go to the forest-dweller stage of life for the sake of purifying himself.
28.25
There, enjoying forest produce, emaciation through austerities, / sleeping on the ground, celibacy, rites for ancestors, gods, and guests,
28.26
fire-offerings, bathing at the three junctures of the day, wearing matted hair and bark garments, / constant practice of yoga, and using wild oils—
28.27
this stage of the forest-dweller is for the purification of sins and brings benefit to oneself; / subsequent to it is the other, final stage of the mendicant.
28.28
Hear from me the true nature of the fourth stage of life, / whose specific duty has been declared, dear son, by high-souled knowers of dharma:
28.29
renunciation of all attachment, celibacy, absence of anger, / restraint of the senses, and not dwelling for long in any one dwelling place;
28.30
abstention from undertakings, taking food only once a day from begged alms, / desire for knowledge of the Self, and contemplation of the Self.
28.31
This duty in the fourth stage of life has been made known to you by me; / hear from me the common duties of all other castes and stages of life:
28.32
truthfulness, purity, non-violence, lack of envy, patience, / harmlessness, generosity, and contentment is the eighth virtue.
28.33
These duties in the castes and stages of life have been declared to you in brief; / and one should abide completely in these, one's own duties.
28.34
And a man who, transgressing his own duty designated for his caste and stage of life, / behaves otherwise, must be punished by the king.
28.35
And the sacrificial and charitable merit of a king perishes / who ignores those men who commit sin by abandoning their own dharma.
28.36
Therefore, all castes must be directed with effort by the king to their own dharma; / if behaving otherwise, they must be punished and established in their proper duties."
28.36.p1
Thus ends the twenty-eighth chapter, named 'The Speech of Madālasā in the Instruction of her Son', in the glorious Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa.
28.36.p3
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Translations (1)
- The Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa — Frederick Eden Pargiter 1888, English
Linked texts (1)
- Mārkaṇḍeyapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit