History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c15.48

v2.c15.48

*Dāna* (gifts). Dāna is a special feature of householder's stage. Gifts highly extolled in the Ṛgveda. Gift of horses censured in some works. Gifts of land were not favoured in very early times. Difference between dāna, yāga and homa. Meaning of iṣṭāpūrta. All could make gifts (including women and śūdras). Persons fit and unfit to be donees. What things could be donated and what not. Three classes of things that could be given. Dānas of three kinds, viz. *nitya*, *naimittika* and *kāmya*. Making gifts in secret eulogised. Certain gifts should not be spurned. Gifts of certain things forbidden. Proper times for making gifts. Generally gifts not to be made at night. Gifts at times of eclipses, *saṁkrānti* and on *ayana* days specially recommended. Proper places for gifts. Presiding deities of various articles of gift. General procedure of making gifts. Kings were required to make various kinds of gifts to brāhmaṇas. Spending money for marriages of brāhmaṇas and settling them in houses highly eulogised. Gifts of land the most meritorious. Smṛti rules about land-grants followed in epigraphic records. Verses deprecating the resumption of gifts made by earlier kings. Prior gifts to temples and brāhmaṇas excepted in grants of villages. Taxes remitted in royal grants. The eight *bhogas* in relation to land grants. Discussion whether king is owner of all lands in the kingdom. Gifts called mahādānas described in purāṇas. Sixteen mahādānas. Procedure of Tulāpuruṣa and other mahādānas. Gift of cows highly extolled. Gifts of ten kinds called *dhenus* such as of ghee, jaggery &c. Ten kinds of gifts called *parvata* or *meru dānas* viz. of heaps of corn, salt, sesame &c. Establishing a pavilion for distributing water. Gift of books. Gifts for propitiating planets. Founding of hospitals. Expiations for accepting gifts which should not have been accepted. When gift becomes irrevocable. Kinds of invalid gifts. Gifts to dharma held void by modern courts.