Skandapurana 4.38
English (machine translation) 4.38
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4.38.1
Skanda said:
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The marriages are the Brāhma, Daiva, and Ārṣa, as well as the Prājāpatya and Āsura;
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the Gāndharva, the Rākṣasa, and the Paiśāca is said to be the eighth. (1)
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That is the Brāhma [marriage] where, having summoned the groom, a well-adorned maiden
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is given away; the son born of it purifies twenty-one generations.
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The Daiva is [given] to an officiating priest engaged in a sacrifice; one born of that protects fourteen [generations].
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The Ārṣa is [conducted] having received a pair of cattle from the groom; one born of that purifies six [generations]. (3)
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Having said, 'May both of you practice righteousness together,' she is given to the suitor—
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where a maiden [is so given], that is Prājāpatya; the son born of it purifies six lineages. (4)
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These four marriages are remembered as righteous for brahmins.
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The Āsura is through purchasing with wealth; the Gāndharva is through mutual affection.
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The Rākṣasa is through violently abducting the maiden; it is condemned by the virtuous.
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The Paiśāca, the eighth, is despised, being through the abduction of a maiden by deceit. (6)
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The Gāndharva, Āsura, and Rākṣasa are generally stated for Kṣatriyas and Vaiśyas.
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This eighth [form], however, is the most sinful, and occurs among the most sinful.
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The hand should be grasped with a woman of the same class; an arrow should be held by a Kṣatriya woman;
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A goad should be held by a Vaiśya woman, and the hem of a garment by a Śūdra woman.
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This rule, handed down by tradition, is observed in marriage when the parties are not of the same class.
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With all women of the same class, however, the hand is to be taken: this is the rule.
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From righteous marriages are born righteous [children], living a hundred years;
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From unrighteous ones [are born those] devoid of righteousness, with little fortune, wealth, or lifespan.
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Approaching [one's wife] during the fertile period is the supreme duty of a householder;
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Or, bearing in mind the boon granted to women, he may approach her as she desires.
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Approaching her by day is considered by men to be highly destructive to lifespan;
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The day of an ancestral rite and all holy festivals must be avoided with effort by the wise man.
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Approaching a woman at such times out of delusion, he falls from the highest virtue.
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He who approaches [his wife] only during the fertile period, and he who is devoted to his own wife,
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Is to be known as a perpetual celibate student and a true dweller in the householder stage.
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The fertile season consists of sixteen nights; the [first] four among them are severely condemned.
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Among those, sons are born on the even nights, and on odd nights, female offspring.
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Avoiding an ill-placed moon, and having avoided Maghā and Pauṣṇa,
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Being pure, he should unite with his wife, especially under a constellation with a masculine name;
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She will give birth to a pure son who achieves the aims of human life.
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The pair of cattle prescribed in the ārṣa marriage is not praised;
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Even a minute bride-price for a maiden makes one guilty of the sin of selling a maiden.
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The seller of an offspring shall dwell for an eon feeding on excrement and worms;
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Therefore, a father must not live on even the slightest wealth belonging to his daughter.
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Those kinsmen who here out of delusion live on a woman's property,
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Not only do they go to hell, but their ancestors do as well.
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Where the wife is pleased with her husband, and where the husband is pleased with his wife,
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There Great Lakṣmī, delighted, dwells with the Enemy of the Dānavas.
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Commerce, serving the king, not teaching the Vedas,
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A bad marriage, and omission of prescribed rites are causes for the fall of a family.
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In the domestic fire, the householder should perform the domestic rites every day,
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As well as the performance of the five sacrifices and the daily cooking.
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For a man in the householder stage, there are five slaughterhouses of daily work:
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The mortar, the grinding stone, the hearth, the water jar, and the broom.
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To neutralize these five slaughterhouses,
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Five sacrifices have been prescribed, which increase the welfare of the householder.
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Teaching is the sacrifice to Brahman, libation is the sacrifice to the ancestors,
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Burnt offering is for the gods, food-offering is for living beings, and honoring guests is the sacrifice to men, in order.
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Desiring the satisfaction of the ancestors, the householder should perform a śrāddha daily
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With cooked food, water, milk, roots, or fruits.
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And whatever merit is obtained by the gift of a cow to a worthy recipient according to the rule,
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He shall attain that fruit by respectfully giving alms to a beggar.
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An oblation offered into the fire of a brahmin's mouth, blazing with austerity and sacred knowledge,
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Rescues one from a multitude of obstacles and even from the impassable ocean of sins.
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From whose house a guest departs unhonored and disappointed in hope,
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He instantly becomes excluded from all the merit accumulated since birth.
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Words preceded by consolation, ground for resting, grass, and water—
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Even these must always be given to satisfy an arriving guest.
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A householder who eats food cooked by another becomes that person's domestic animal after death;
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For the giver of food takes the welfare of the one nourished on another's food.
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A guest brought by the setting sun in the evening must be honored with effort;
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Departing elsewhere unhonored, he passes on extensive sin.
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Eating the food left over from a guest, he partakes of longevity and wealth in this world;
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A householder who eats his meal after turning away a guest is a sinner.
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A guest is defined as one who arrives at the end of the vaiśvadeva sacrifice, or brought by the sun,
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Who has not come at an earlier time, and has never been seen before.
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If another guest arrives while the food-offering vessel is in the brahmin's hand,
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Without giving that offering, he should provide food to him according to his capacity.
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Young children, married daughters staying in the home, pregnant women, and the afflicted:
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These should be fed even before the guest; on this matter there is no doubt.
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Having given to the ancestors, the gods, and men, the householder partakes of nectar.
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cooking for his own sake, he eats [only] sin, merely filling his own belly. // 37
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The householder should perform the midday Vaiśvadeva [offering] himself;
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in the evening, his wife should offer the bali offering with cooked food, without mantras. // 38
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This is known as the evening Vaiśvadeva in the householder order of life;
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Vaiśvadeva must indeed take place evening and morning with diligent effort. // 39
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Those who are devoid of the Vaiśvadeva, destitute of hospitality,
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are all to be known as outcasts, even if they are twice-born who have acquired the Vedas. // 4.1.38.40
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The lowest of the twice-born who eat without having performed the Vaiśvadeva
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become deprived of food in this world, and then go to the womb of a crow. // 41
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Unwearied, one should constantly perform one's own duty declared in the Veda;
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for performing that according to one's ability, one attains the supreme good destination. // 42
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On the sixth and eighth [lunar days], sin always resides in oil and meat;
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and likewise on the fifteenth and the fourteenth, [sin resides] in sexual intercourse and sugarcane. // 43
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One should not gaze upon the sun rising, nor setting, nor at midday,
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nor seized by Rāhu, nor reflected in water. // 44
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One should not look at one's own image [in water]; one should not run fast when it rains;
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one should not step over a calf-rope; one should not enter water naked. // 45
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A temple of a deity, a brahmin, a cow, honey, clay, clarified butter,
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one senior in caste, senior in age, senior in learning, an ascetic,
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a sacred fig tree, a caitya-tree, an elder, a water-filled jar,
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cooked food, curd, and white mustard seeds—passing [these], one should make a clockwise circumambulation. // 47
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One should not consort with a menstruating woman; one should not eat together with one's wife;
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one should not eat wearing a single garment; one should not eat on an elevated seat. // 48
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An excellent twice-born desiring splendour should not look at a woman who is eating;
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without gratifying the ancestors and the gods, one should never eat new grain. // 49
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[Nor should one eat] cooked food [kept] a long time, nor meat, if one desires to live long.
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One should not pass urine in a cattle-pen, nor on an anthill, nor on ashes, // 4.1.38.50
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nor in cavities containing living creatures, nor standing, nor even walking.
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Cows, brahmins, the sun, wind, fire, the moon, stars, water, and teachers—
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facing towards them, one should not discharge faeces or urine.
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Having covered the ground with clods of earth, pieces of wood, leaves, grass, and the like, // 52
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[and] having covered the head with a garment, silent, one should discharge faeces and urine;
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facing comfortably at night, and in the day in shade or darkness. // 53
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In dangers and in peril to life, one may discharge bodily waste [in any way].
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One should not blow on fire with the mouth; one should not gaze at a naked woman. // 54
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One should not warm one's feet in fire; one should not cast an impure object [into fire];
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one should not commit harm to living beings; one should not eat at the two twilights. // 55
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One should not lie down at twilight, even with head towards the west or the north;
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one who desires to live long should not discharge faeces, urine, or phlegm into water. // 56
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One should not announce a suckling cow; one should not point out a rainbow;
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one should not sleep alone anywhere in an empty place; one should not awaken someone who is sleeping. // 57
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One should not travel a road alone; one should not drink water with folded hands;
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and one should not consume curd at night whose essence arose during the day. // 58
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One should not speak to a menstruating woman; one should not eat to full satiety at night;
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one should not be fond of the triple symphony; one should not wash one's feet in a bell-metal vessel. // 59
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He who, having performed a śrāddha, eats at another's śrāddha, devoid of discernment,
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for the giver there is no fruit of the śrāddha, and the eater becomes a consumer of sin. // 4.1.38.60
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One should not wear clothing or shoes used by another;
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one should not eat from a broken vessel, nor sit [where] defiled by fire and the like. // 61
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Riding on the back of cattle, the smoke of a corpse, swimming across a river,
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the morning sun, and daytime sleep—one who desires to live long should avoid. // 62
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Having bathed, one should not wipe one's body; one should not unloose one's topknot on the road;
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one should not shake one's hands or head; one should not drag a seat with one's foot. // 63
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One should never pull out hair or nails with one's teeth;
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one should avoid cutting nails with nails, and cutting grass. // 64
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That action which does not lead to auspiciousness in the future, one should diligently avoid;
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one should not enter one's own house or another's house through an improper entrance. // 65
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One should not play with dice; one should not sit with destroyers of dharma nor with diseased persons;
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one should never sleep naked, and one should never eat from the palm of the hand. // 66
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Eating with wet feet, hands, and mouth, one lives for a long time.
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He should not go to sleep with wet feet, nor should he go anywhere impure from food [with unwashed hands and mouth].
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Lying in bed, a twice-born man should not eat, / nor should he drink, nor should he recite sacred texts.
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Wearing shoes, he should not perform ācamana, nor should he drink from a stream while standing.
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Desiring well-being, he should not eat anything made of sesame in the evening.
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He should not gaze at feces and urine, nor touch his head when impure from food.
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He should not step upon chaff, burning coals, ashes, hair, or potsherds.
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Dwelling together with fallen men leads only to falling.
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He should never recite a Vedic mantra to a Śūdra.
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The brahmin falls from brahminhood, and the Śūdra falls from dharma.
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Instructing Śūdras in dharma strikes down one's own welfare.
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For serving the twice-born is considered the highest dharma of Śūdras.
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Scratching the head with both hands is not considered auspicious,
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nor striking [oneself] with both hands, shouting, or tearing one's hair.
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By accepting a gift from a king who acts against the scriptures and is greedy,
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a brahmin, along with his family, goes to the twenty-one hells.
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During unseasonal lightning and thunder, in the rainy season when dust rains down,
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and in the roaring of a great wind at night, times of non-recitation are proclaimed.
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During the fall of meteors, earthquakes, an eerie glow on the horizons, at midnight,
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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],
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on the new-moon day, on the Aṣṭakās, on the fourteenth tithi, and having received gifts from an ancestral rite,
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on the first tithi, on the full-moon day, when an elephant or a camel comes between [teacher and student],
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at the braying of a donkey, camel, or jackal, in a crowd, and while someone weeps,
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at the Upākarma and the Utsarga, on a boat, on a path, in a tree, in water,
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having studied the Āraṇyaka, and at the sound of the flute and the singing of Sāmans,
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at these times of non-recitation, a twice-born man should never study.
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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.
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[Combined with segment 26 in verse count 80]
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Approaching another man's wife shortens one's lifespan;
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therefore, it must be avoided from afar, as well as serving enemies.
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Deprived of former wealth, he should not despise himself;
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for to those who are ever energetic, prosperity and knowledge are not difficult to obtain.
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He should speak truth, he should speak pleasantly; he should not speak an unpleasant truth;
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nor should he speak a pleasant falsehood: this is the eternal law, O pot-born [Agastya].
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He should always speak only what is auspicious; he should contemplate only what is auspicious.
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Here, association should only be with the virtuous, never with the unvirtuous.
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A wise man should not insult men devoid of beauty, wealth, or good birth.
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When impure, he should not look upon the sun and moon, nor upon the host of luminaries.
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He should check the impulse of speech, the impulse of the mind, and the impulse of the tongue.
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He should shun from afar wealth [gotten from] bribery, gambling, or the distress of an envoy.
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He should never touch cows, brahmins, or fire with hands impure from food;
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when healthy, he should not touch his own nails without a reason.
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Nor should he touch pubic hairs; from touching them he becomes impure.
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Water used for washing the feet, urine, water and leftover food,
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spittle, and phlegm he should throw far from the house.
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From day and night recitation of the Veda, from following pure conduct,
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and with a mind devoid of malice, a twice-born man remembers his previous birth.
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He should diligently bow to the elderly and give them his own seat;
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with humbled senses, he should then follow behind them.
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Of the Veda, brahmins, the gods, kings, virtuous men, ascetics,
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and chaste wives, he should never make censure.
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He should not flatter mortals, nor should he demean himself;
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he should not turn away one who comes for help, nor disclose another's secrets.
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By unrighteousness a man prospers at first, and even conquers his enemies;
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having attained auspiciousness on all sides, he is then destroyed along with his family.
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Taking out five lumps of clay, he should bathe in another's body of water;
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not taking [them] out, he partakes of a fourth of the sin of its maker.
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Whatever wealth is given with faith, having found a worthy recipient,
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in a proper place and time according to the rule, leads to endless merit.
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The giver of land becomes a ruler of a realm; givers of food are happy everywhere;
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the giver of water is ever satisfied; the giver of silver becomes handsome.
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The giver of a lamp possesses clear eyes; the giver of a cow attains the world of Aryaman.
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The giver of gold attains long life, while the giver of sesame seeds will have good offspring.
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The giver of a house becomes the master of lofty mansions; the giver of clothing attains the world of the moon.
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The giver of a horse attains a divine conveyance; the giver of an ox becomes possessed of fortune.
4.38.199
The giver of a palanquin obtains a good wife, and the giver of an excellent bed also [obtains one].
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The giver of grain is ever endowed with prosperity; the giver of fearlessness becomes a ruler.
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Linked texts (1)
- Skandapurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit