History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c19.62

v2.c19.62

therefore the brāhmaṇa sits down below the kṣatriya in the Rājasūya' (Śatapatha 14. 4. 1. 23=Bṛ. Up. I. 4. 11). In the Atharvaveda several verses occur which declare the harm that results from disrespecting or injuring a brāhmaṇa or from robbing him of his cow. 'He who regards brāhmaṇa as food drinks of the poison of Taimāta; he who injures a brāhmaṇa, the relative of the gods, does not attain to the world of pitṛs' (Atharvaveda V. 18. 4 and 13). 'Those who spat on a brāhmaṇa or those who sent to him mucus remain biting the hair in the midst of a stream by their mouth; that kingdom sinks as water sinks a shattered vessel, where' they injure a brāhmaṇa; that wicked act strikes that kingdom⁹⁸ (Atharvaveda V. 19. 3 and 8).