Skandapurana 16.207

Īśvara said: / Īśvara said: / Hereafter I shall explain the gifts for the śrāddha in due order, / For the deliverance of living beings at the confluence of the Sarasvatī and the ocean.

Whatever is best in the world, and whatever is dear to oneself, / All that should be given to the ancestors by those desiring imperishable [rewards].

A celestial aerial chariot made of gold from the Jambu river, resembling the sun, / Crowded with celestial apsarases, imperishable, the giver of food obtains.

He who gives uncut clothing in the śrāddha rite / Obtains long life, radiance, lordship, and beauty.

And he who gives a water pot to a brahmin who has mastered the Veda, / A cow flowing with honey and milk follows that giver.

He who gives freedom from fear at a śrāddha to living beings desiring life, / [Compared] with the gift of a thousand horses, a hundred chariots, / And a thousand tuskers, the gift of freedom from fear is superior.

Whatever gems there are on earth, vehicles, and women, / A man devoted to the ancestors swiftly obtains all that.

The ancestors, gods in all worlds, at the times of the lunar days, / All approach the man, like cows approaching a water reservoir.

Let them not return unhonoured at the time of the festival! / May their hopes never be in vain, here or in the hereafter.

He who feeds just one twice-born in the presence of the Sarasvatī, / Gains the fruit of feeding ten million; of this there is no doubt.

The man who eats the food of another on the new moon day— / His merit acquired during the month accrues to the giver of the food.

If he eats [another's food] at the solstice, [it consumes the merit of] six months; at the equinox, it is taught to be three months. / Whatever merit was acquired over twelve years, / All that is lost by eating during a solar or lunar eclipse.

A full month at the transit of the sun; at the initial śrāddha, three years; / At the monthly rite, a year; at the six-monthly, half a year;

Likewise, at the collection śrāddha, [the merit] acquired throughout one's birth and existence is destroyed. / One who accepts the bed of a dead man, one who sells the Veda, / And a man who steals the property of brahmins: for him there is no purification.

Not by a thousand tanks, nor by a hundred horse sacrifices, / Nor by the gift of ten million cows does a stealer of land become purified.

Stealing even a māṣa of gold, a single cow, or half an inch of land, / a man attains hell until the dissolution of all beings. // 16

Killing a brahmin, drinking liquor, [stealing] the wealth of a poor person, / [violating] the guru's wife, and [stealing] gold—[any of these] causes even one in heaven to fall. // 17

A cow is worth a thousand [gifts]; an ox is worth ten cows; / a vehicle is equal to ten oxen; a horse is equal to ten vehicles; // 18

a maiden is equal to ten horses; the gift of land is greater than that. / Therefore, by every effort, one must never allow [land] to be sold. // 19

Especially in a great sacred field that destroys all sins: / having touched wood from a funeral pyre, or sacrificial posts, / or having touched someone who sells the Veda, a ritual ablution is prescribed. // 7.1.207.20

Whoever recites a royal edict [for gain] and whoever gives an edict— / both of these evil-doers are destined to dwell in the depths of Pātāla. // 21

The man who recites a royal edict at the king’s gate, / he too, O goddess, becomes a thorn-covered tree in a barren desert— / [and likewise] one who stays at the king’s gate and sells the Veda. // 22

A sin equal to killing a brahmin has never existed nor ever will. / It would be better to commit [other wrongs], O goddess, but one must certainly never sell the Veda. // 23

It would be better for the lowest of the twice-born to slaughter cows and eat their meat; / it would be better to live among the barbarians, rather than sell the Veda. // 24

A direct demand, an assurance, acceptance following inquiry, / bargaining over officiating or over teaching—selling the Veda is of six kinds. // 25

For as many syllables of the Veda as he employs for selfish purposes, / indeed, so many murders of an embryo does the seller of the Veda incur. // 26

Whoever gives an offering to a brahmin on account of [his] recitation of the Veda, / he goes to hell first, and the brahmin immediately after. // 27

Those who are destitute of the vaiśvadeva rite and those who lack hospitality to guests, / are by their conduct entirely Śūdras, even if they are twice-born endowed with the Veda. // 28

Those who do not study, those who keep no sacred fire, / or those whose family is unlearned in the Veda—they all have the status of Śūdras. // 29

He who does not perform with devotion the śrāddha on the anniversary of the father's death, / or of the mother's, O fair-hipped goddess, that twice-born is equal to a Śūdra. // 7.1.207.30

He who eats during a period of death-impurity, or during an eclipse of the moon or sun, / or at an elephant's shadow—one should treat him as a Śūdra. // 31

For a celibate student, at a sacrifice, for an ascetic, for an artisan, for an initiated person, / at a sacrificial rite, at a marriage, and at a long sacrificial session, there is never ritual impurity. // 32

Cowherds, traders, artisans, bards, / and usurers—even if they are brahmins, one should treat them as Śūdras. // 33

A brahmin who engages in degrading misdeeds, / hypocritical and full of evil deeds, is considered equal to a Śūdra. // 34

One who eats without having bathed eats filth; one who recites no prayers [eats] pus and blood; / one who eats without offering into the fire eats worms; one who eats without giving [to others] eats poison. // 35

If someone unites with a woman after eating another's food, / the sons belong to him whose food it was, for semen arises from food. // 36

The food of a king takes away brilliance; the food of a Śūdra takes away spiritual radiance; / the food of a goldsmith takes away lifespan; that of a leather-cutter takes away fame. // 37

The food of an artisan destroys offspring; that of a washerman destroys strength; / the food of a guild and the food of a courtesan cut one off from the heavenly worlds. // 38

The food of a physician is pus; the food of an unchaste woman is sexual fluid; / the food of a usurer is excrement; that of an arm-seller is dirt. // 39

Better is a well-controlled brahmin whose only knowledge is the essence of the Gāyatrī, / than an uncontrolled knower of the four Vedas who eats everything and sells everything. // 7.1.207.40

[A brahmin] falls instantly through [selling] meat, lac, and salt; / through selling milk, a brahmin becomes a Śūdra in three days. // 41

Liquids may be exchanged for liquids, but never salt for liquids; / cooked food [may be exchanged] for cooked food, and sesame seeds for their equal in grain. // 42

Whatever else one does with sesame seeds other than eating, anointing, or giving them away, / he sinks into excrement along with his ancestors, turning into a worm. // 43

If an ignorant man accepts cakes, gold, / a cow, a horse, land, or sesame seeds, he turns to ashes like wood. // 44

Gold and jewels [destroy] longevity; land and a cow drain the physical body; / a horse takes away sight; cloth takes away the skin; ghee takes away brilliance; sesame seeds take away offspring. // 45

If a keeper of the sacred fire and an ascetic is hired for an occasion, / all his fire offerings and austerity become the property of the rich employer. // 46

In the selling of soma is excrement; in medicine, pus and blood; / a gift given to a temple priest is wasted, and [a gift given] to a usurer brings no foundation. // 47

A brahmin devoted to the worship of gods for the sake of wealth in the three worlds / is called a devalaka; he is condemned in rites for gods and ancestors. // 48

He who approaches the wife of his deceased brother out of lust, / even if appointed according to law, is known as a didhiṣūpati. // 49

He who takes a wife and establishes the sacred fires while his elder brother remains [unmarried] / should be known as a parivettā, and the elder brother as a parivitti. // 7.1.207.50

A man who uses the clothes, wells, gardens, and houses / of another without permission partakes of a fourth of his sins. // 51

One who, having been invited to a śrāddha, enjoys himself with a Śūdra woman, / incurs all whatever evil deed belongs to the donor. // 52

One may live by ṛta and amṛta, or by mṛta and pramṛta, / or one may live by satyānṛta, but by a dog's livelihood under no circumstance. // 53

Gleaned grain is to be known as ṛta; what is unasked for is amṛta; / living by usury is mṛta; agriculture is remembered as pramṛta. // 54

Trade is satyānṛta, and one may sustain oneself by that too; / servitude is called a dog's livelihood, therefore one should avoid it. // 55

Having attained birth as a brahmin, one should avoid mixture; / human birth is difficult to obtain in the world, and brahminhood even more so. // 56

Sharing a bed or seat, eating in a common line, mixing pots and cooked food, / officiating at sacrifices, teaching, intermarriage, and dining together— / this mixture is declared to be of nine kinds; it must not be done with degraded persons. // 57

If unable to make a living by his own occupation, a brahmin may take up that of a kṣatriya, / or he may perform the work of a vaiśya; but he must avoid that of a Śūdra. // 58

He may himself engage in moneylending, agriculture, and commerce. / Engaging in them himself in times of distress, the twice-born is purified by ritual ablution. // 59

Having obtained profit, he should satisfy the ancestors, the gods, and brahmins; / they, being satisfied, dispel that sin of his; there is no doubt. // 60

Water, cattle, carts, orchards, begging, usury, and trade activities, / marshland, mountains, and the king are declared to be means of livelihood during a famine. // 61

Whoever takes wealth even from an unworthy person and gives it to the virtuous, / delivers its owner and himself from what is difficult to cross. // 62

A gift to a Śūdra brings equal merit; to a Vaiśya, it is taught to be twofold; / to a scholar of the Veda, it is a thousandfold; and to an Agnihotrin, it is infinite. // 63

There is no bypassing a brahmin; one should not violate proper order: / bypassing a blazing fire, one does not indeed offer an oblation into ashes. // 64

A gift should never be accepted by one devoid of learning and austerity; / accepting it, he drags both the giver and himself downward. // 65

Therefore, only a scholar of the Veda is worthy—virtuous, of good character, pure, / free of bodily defect, and faultless; this is taught to be the highest among recipients. // 66

Just as water kept in a skull or milk in a dog's skin / is contaminated by the fault of the vessel, so is Vedic knowledge in one lacking right conduct. // 67

When a gift is accepted by an unworthy recipient, bypassing a worthy recipient, / that gift is like giving daily fodder to a donkey, bypassing a cow. // 68

Therefore, one should preserve conduct; wealth comes and goes again. / One depleted of wealth is not truly ruined, but one ruined in conduct is utterly destroyed. // 69

First giving the highest gift to the guru in due order, / he should then give to other brahmins according to their worthiness as recipients. // 70

When men have given to other recipients a gift that was [meant to be] given to the guru, / that [gift] becomes fruitless after death, or rather leads to a downward state. // 71

A fool who dishonors his guru and angers him, / struck down by disrespect to his guru, does not attain peace. // 72

In the absence of the guru, [one should give to] his son; failing his son, to his wife; / or to his grandson, great-grandson, daughter's son, or another born in his family. // 73

When one's own guru is heard to be within five yojanas, / then a person should not pass him over to give a gift to [other] recipients. // 74

If an ascetic, out of greed, begs for an offering being given, / it should not be given to him by the wise; greed in an ascetic is not praised. // 75

An ascetic should not practice silence and knowledge in the world having acquired wealth, / nor worldly enjoyment through giving, nor a livelihood through celibacy. // 76

Those who have attained birth in a [noble] family and [proper] initiations are the best of men; / one certainly attains good fortune in the world by refraining from dainty foods. // 77

All one's offspring become long-lived by abstaining from meat. // 78

Discarding clothes and ornaments and wearing rags and bark, / a person attains lordship over serpents by fasting. // 79

By truthful speech one disports with the gods in heaven; / likewise, by non-violence one gains health, and by giving one gains fame in due order. // 80

Through service to the twice-born a person attains kingship and bountiful brahminhood; / through service to the gods he attains a divine form. // 81

Satisfaction with all unsurpassed desires arises from the gift of food; / by the offering of a lamp, a person is born with good vision. // 82

Everlasting contentment comes from giving perfumes and garlands; / givers of salt, sesame seeds, and clarified butter / are born splendid, full of enjoyment, and long-lived. // 83

The man who gives a twice-born a bed with cushions and colorful garments and ornaments / obtains an attractive wife endowed with beauty, fine eyelashes, and rich curly hair. // 84

Thus ends the two hundred and seventh chapter, entitled "Discussion of Worthy and Unworthy Recipients in the Rules of Śrāddha," in the first [part], the Prabhāsakṣetramāhātmya, of the seventh [section], the Prabhāsakhaṇḍa, in the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses. // 207