Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c8.141

c8.141

Public works (*pūrta*) too are not considered to be less meritorious, such as the establishment of shelters for the poor and for travellers (*dharmasāla*), sinking wells and constructing cisterns and water stations (*prapā*), digging tanks and laying public gardens etc. The Purāṇas deal with this subject very exhaustively¹ from which it is also clear that it was not always a gift but mere resignation of proprietory right (*utsarga*), as for instance even the liberation of a bull (Vi. 86 etc.) at the Śrāddha ceremony falls under this head. To these pious acts further belongs the establishment of images of gods and temples and the repair of the same if they are dilapidated or damaged. Important immunities and privileges are connected with the gifts. Thus exemption from taxes is warranted to the donee (cf. §35), and a man who has promised a present to a Brahman may be sued for it as for a debt (Kāty. 14, 4)² etc. Intentional alteration and forging of a royal grant shall be punished with the first amercement and death respectively (Y. 2, 295; M. 9, 232); if a man does not fulfil his promise of constructing a house for the assembly or a water station or a temple or of digging a tank and laying a garden, or of constructing roads and of similar pious works of public utility, his property shall be confiscated and he will be banished from the city (Bṛh. 17, 11—13).