Skandapurana 4.38

Skanda said:

The marriages are the Brāhma, Daiva, and Ārṣa, as well as the Prājāpatya and Āsura;

the Gāndharva, the Rākṣasa, and the Paiśāca is said to be the eighth. (1)

That is the Brāhma [marriage] where, having summoned the groom, a well-adorned maiden

is given away; the son born of it purifies twenty-one generations.

The Daiva is [given] to an officiating priest engaged in a sacrifice; one born of that protects fourteen [generations].

The Ārṣa is [conducted] having received a pair of cattle from the groom; one born of that purifies six [generations]. (3)

Having said, 'May both of you practice righteousness together,' she is given to the suitor—

where a maiden [is so given], that is Prājāpatya; the son born of it purifies six lineages. (4)

These four marriages are remembered as righteous for brahmins.

The Āsura is through purchasing with wealth; the Gāndharva is through mutual affection.

The Rākṣasa is through violently abducting the maiden; it is condemned by the virtuous.

The Paiśāca, the eighth, is despised, being through the abduction of a maiden by deceit. (6)

The Gāndharva, Āsura, and Rākṣasa are generally stated for Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas.

This eighth [form], however, is the most sinful, and occurs among the most sinful.

The hand should be grasped with a woman of the same class; an arrow should be held by a Kṣatriya woman;

A goad should be held by a Vaiśya woman, and the hem of a garment by a Śūdra woman.

This rule, handed down by tradition, is observed in marriage when the parties are not of the same class.

With all women of the same class, however, the hand is to be taken: this is the rule.

From righteous marriages are born righteous [children], living a hundred years;

From unrighteous ones [are born those] devoid of righteousness, with little fortune, wealth, or lifespan.

Approaching [one's wife] during the fertile period is the supreme duty of a householder;

Or, bearing in mind the boon granted to women, he may approach her as she desires.

Approaching her by day is considered by men to be highly destructive to lifespan;

The day of an ancestral rite and all holy festivals must be avoided with effort by the wise man.

Approaching a woman at such times out of delusion, he falls from the highest virtue.

He who approaches [his wife] only during the fertile period, and he who is devoted to his own wife,

Is to be known as a perpetual celibate student and a true dweller in the householder stage.

The fertile season consists of sixteen nights; the [first] four among them are severely condemned.

Among those, sons are born on the even nights, and on odd nights, female offspring.

Avoiding an ill-placed moon, and having avoided Maghā and Pauṣṇa,

Being pure, he should unite with his wife, especially under a constellation with a masculine name;

She will give birth to a pure son who achieves the aims of human life.

The pair of cattle prescribed in the ārṣa marriage is not praised;

Even a minute bride-price for a maiden makes one guilty of the sin of selling a maiden.

The seller of an offspring shall dwell for an eon feeding on excrement and worms;

Therefore, a father must not live on even the slightest wealth belonging to his daughter.

Those kinsmen who here out of delusion live on a woman's property,

Not only do they go to hell, but their ancestors do as well.

Where the wife is pleased with her husband, and where the husband is pleased with his wife,

There Great Lakṣmī, delighted, dwells with the Enemy of the Dānavas.

Commerce, serving the king, not teaching the Vedas,

A bad marriage, and omission of prescribed rites are causes for the fall of a family.

In the domestic fire, the householder should perform the domestic rites every day,

As well as the performance of the five sacrifices and the daily cooking.

For a man in the householder stage, there are five slaughterhouses of daily work:

The mortar, the grinding stone, the hearth, the water jar, and the broom.

To neutralize these five slaughterhouses,

Five sacrifices have been prescribed, which increase the welfare of the householder.

Teaching is the sacrifice to Brahman, libation is the sacrifice to the ancestors,

Burnt offering is for the gods, food-offering is for living beings, and honoring guests is the sacrifice to men, in order.

Desiring the satisfaction of the ancestors, the householder should perform a śrāddha daily

With cooked food, water, milk, roots, or fruits.

And whatever merit is obtained by the gift of a cow to a worthy recipient according to the rule,

He shall attain that fruit by respectfully giving alms to a beggar.

An oblation offered into the fire of a brahmin's mouth, blazing with austerity and sacred knowledge,

Rescues one from a multitude of obstacles and even from the impassable ocean of sins.

From whose house a guest departs unhonored and disappointed in hope,

He instantly becomes excluded from all the merit accumulated since birth.

Words preceded by consolation, ground for resting, grass, and water—

Even these must always be given to satisfy an arriving guest.

A householder who eats food cooked by another becomes that person's domestic animal after death;

For the giver of food takes the welfare of the one nourished on another's food.

A guest brought by the setting sun in the evening must be honored with effort;

Departing elsewhere unhonored, he passes on extensive sin.

Eating the food left over from a guest, he partakes of longevity and wealth in this world;

A householder who eats his meal after turning away a guest is a sinner.

A guest is defined as one who arrives at the end of the vaiśvadeva sacrifice, or brought by the sun,

Who has not come at an earlier time, and has never been seen before.

If another guest arrives while the food-offering vessel is in the brahmin's hand,

Without giving that offering, he should provide food to him according to his capacity.

Young children, married daughters staying in the home, pregnant women, and the afflicted:

These should be fed even before the guest; on this matter there is no doubt.

Having given to the ancestors, the gods, and men, the householder partakes of nectar.

cooking for his own sake, he eats [only] sin, merely filling his own belly. // 37

The householder should perform the midday Vaiśvadeva [offering] himself;

in the evening, his wife should offer the bali offering with cooked food, without mantras. // 38

This is known as the evening Vaiśvadeva in the householder order of life;

Vaiśvadeva must indeed take place evening and morning with diligent effort. // 39

Those who are devoid of the Vaiśvadeva, destitute of hospitality,

are all to be known as outcasts, even if they are twice-born who have acquired the Vedas. // 4.1.38.40

The lowest of the twice-born who eat without having performed the Vaiśvadeva

become deprived of food in this world, and then go to the womb of a crow. // 41

Unwearied, one should constantly perform one's own duty declared in the Veda;

for performing that according to one's ability, one attains the supreme good destination. // 42

On the sixth and eighth [lunar days], sin always resides in oil and meat;

and likewise on the fifteenth and the fourteenth, [sin resides] in sexual intercourse and sugarcane. // 43

One should not gaze upon the sun rising, nor setting, nor at midday,

nor seized by Rāhu, nor reflected in water. // 44

One should not look at one's own image [in water]; one should not run fast when it rains;

one should not step over a calf-rope; one should not enter water naked. // 45

A temple of a deity, a brahmin, a cow, honey, clay, clarified butter,

one senior in caste, senior in age, senior in learning, an ascetic,

a sacred fig tree, a caitya-tree, an elder, a water-filled jar,

cooked food, curd, and white mustard seeds—passing [these], one should make a clockwise circumambulation. // 47

One should not consort with a menstruating woman; one should not eat together with one's wife;

one should not eat wearing a single garment; one should not eat on an elevated seat. // 48

An excellent twice-born desiring splendour should not look at a woman who is eating;

without gratifying the ancestors and the gods, one should never eat new grain. // 49

[Nor should one eat] cooked food [kept] a long time, nor meat, if one desires to live long.

One should not pass urine in a cattle-pen, nor on an anthill, nor on ashes, // 4.1.38.50

nor in cavities containing living creatures, nor standing, nor even walking.

Cows, brahmins, the sun, wind, fire, the moon, stars, water, and teachers—

facing towards them, one should not discharge faeces or urine.

Having covered the ground with clods of earth, pieces of wood, leaves, grass, and the like, // 52

[and] having covered the head with a garment, silent, one should discharge faeces and urine;

facing comfortably at night, and in the day in shade or darkness. // 53

In dangers and in peril to life, one may discharge bodily waste [in any way].

One should not blow on fire with the mouth; one should not gaze at a naked woman. // 54

One should not warm one's feet in fire; one should not cast an impure object [into fire];

one should not commit harm to living beings; one should not eat at the two twilights. // 55

One should not lie down at twilight, even with head towards the west or the north;

one who desires to live long should not discharge faeces, urine, or phlegm into water. // 56

One should not announce a suckling cow; one should not point out a rainbow;

one should not sleep alone anywhere in an empty place; one should not awaken someone who is sleeping. // 57

One should not travel a road alone; one should not drink water with folded hands;

and one should not consume curd at night whose essence arose during the day. // 58

One should not speak to a menstruating woman; one should not eat to full satiety at night;

one should not be fond of the triple symphony; one should not wash one's feet in a bell-metal vessel. // 59

He who, having performed a śrāddha, eats at another's śrāddha, devoid of discernment,

for the giver there is no fruit of the śrāddha, and the eater becomes a consumer of sin. // 4.1.38.60

One should not wear clothing or shoes used by another;

one should not eat from a broken vessel, nor sit [where] defiled by fire and the like. // 61

Riding on the back of cattle, the smoke of a corpse, swimming across a river,

the morning sun, and daytime sleep—one who desires to live long should avoid. // 62

Having bathed, one should not wipe one's body; one should not unloose one's topknot on the road;

one should not shake one's hands or head; one should not drag a seat with one's foot. // 63

One should never pull out hair or nails with one's teeth;

one should avoid cutting nails with nails, and cutting grass. // 64

That action which does not lead to auspiciousness in the future, one should diligently avoid;

one should not enter one's own house or another's house through an improper entrance. // 65

One should not play with dice; one should not sit with destroyers of dharma nor with diseased persons;

one should never sleep naked, and one should never eat from the palm of the hand. // 66

Eating with wet feet, hands, and mouth, one lives for a long time.

He should not go to sleep with wet feet, nor should he go anywhere impure from food [with unwashed hands and mouth].

Lying in bed, a twice-born man should not eat, / nor should he drink, nor should he recite sacred texts.

Wearing shoes, he should not perform ācamana, nor should he drink from a stream while standing.

Desiring well-being, he should not eat anything made of sesame in the evening.

He should not gaze at feces and urine, nor touch his head when impure from food.

He should not step upon chaff, burning coals, ashes, hair, or potsherds.

Dwelling together with fallen men leads only to falling.

He should never recite a Vedic mantra to a Śūdra.

The brahmin falls from brahminhood, and the Śūdra falls from dharma.

Instructing Śūdras in dharma strikes down one's own welfare.

For serving the twice-born is considered the highest dharma of Śūdras.

Scratching the head with both hands is not considered auspicious,

nor striking [oneself] with both hands, shouting, or tearing one's hair.

By accepting a gift from a king who acts against the scriptures and is greedy,

a brahmin, along with his family, goes to the twenty-one hells.

During unseasonal lightning and thunder, in the rainy season when dust rains down,

and in the roaring of a great wind at night, times of non-recitation are proclaimed.

During the fall of meteors, earthquakes, an eerie glow on the horizons, at midnight,

at the two twilights, in the presence of a Śūdra, during the pollution from birth or death of a king or during an eclipse [by Rāhu],

on the new-moon day, on the Aṣṭakās, on the fourteenth tithi, and having received gifts from an ancestral rite,

on the first tithi, on the full-moon day, when an elephant or a camel comes between [teacher and student],

at the braying of a donkey, camel, or jackal, in a crowd, and while someone weeps,

at the Upākarma and the Utsarga, on a boat, on a path, in a tree, in water,

having studied the Āraṇyaka, and at the sound of the flute and the singing of Sāmans,

at these times of non-recitation, a twice-born man should never study.

Interrupted by a frog, a mouse, a dog, a snake, or a mongoose, he should not recite; / on the fourteenth, eighth, and fifteenth tithis, he should always remain celibate.

[Combined with segment 26 in verse count 80]

Approaching another man's wife shortens one's lifespan;

therefore, it must be avoided from afar, as well as serving enemies.

Deprived of former wealth, he should not despise himself;

for to those who are ever energetic, prosperity and knowledge are not difficult to obtain.

He should speak truth, he should speak pleasantly; he should not speak an unpleasant truth;

nor should he speak a pleasant falsehood: this is the eternal law, O pot-born [Agastya].

He should always speak only what is auspicious; he should contemplate only what is auspicious.

Here, association should only be with the virtuous, never with the unvirtuous.

A wise man should not insult men devoid of beauty, wealth, or good birth.

When impure, he should not look upon the sun and moon, nor upon the host of luminaries.

He should check the impulse of speech, the impulse of the mind, and the impulse of the tongue.

He should shun from afar wealth [gotten from] bribery, gambling, or the distress of an envoy.

He should never touch cows, brahmins, or fire with hands impure from food;

when healthy, he should not touch his own nails without a reason.

Nor should he touch pubic hairs; from touching them he becomes impure.

Water used for washing the feet, urine, water and leftover food,

spittle, and phlegm he should throw far from the house.

From day and night recitation of the Veda, from following pure conduct,

and with a mind devoid of malice, a twice-born man remembers his previous birth.

He should diligently bow to the elderly and give them his own seat;

with humbled senses, he should then follow behind them.

Of the Veda, brahmins, the gods, kings, virtuous men, ascetics,

and chaste wives, he should never make censure.

He should not flatter mortals, nor should he demean himself;

he should not turn away one who comes for help, nor disclose another's secrets.

By unrighteousness a man prospers at first, and even conquers his enemies;

having attained auspiciousness on all sides, he is then destroyed along with his family.

Taking out five lumps of clay, he should bathe in another's body of water;

not taking [them] out, he partakes of a fourth of the sin of its maker.

Whatever wealth is given with faith, having found a worthy recipient,

in a proper place and time according to the rule, leads to endless merit.

The giver of land becomes a ruler of a realm; givers of food are happy everywhere;

the giver of water is ever satisfied; the giver of silver becomes handsome.

The giver of a lamp possesses clear eyes; the giver of a cow attains the world of Aryaman.

The giver of gold attains long life, while the giver of sesame seeds will have good offspring.

The giver of a house becomes the master of lofty mansions; the giver of clothing attains the world of the moon.

The giver of a horse attains a divine conveyance; the giver of an ox becomes possessed of fortune.

The giver of a palanquin obtains a good wife, and the giver of an excellent bed also [obtains one].

The giver of grain is ever endowed with prosperity; the giver of fearlessness becomes a ruler.