History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.28

v2.c20.28

Gautama (IX. 63), Yāj. (I. 100), Viṣṇu Dh. S. (63. 1), and Laghu-Vyāsa (II. 8) say that a brāhmaṇa should approach a king (or a rich man) for his *yogakṣema* (i. e. for his livelihood and support). Manu (IV. 33), Yāj. (I. 130), and Vas. Dh. S. (XII. 2) declare that a brāhmaṇa when oppressed by hunger should seek for help (or money) from a king, from his pupil or from one who is able and willing to offer a sacrifice. But a brāhmaṇa should not receive a gift from an irreligious king or other irreligious donor. This implies that if the brāhmaṇa is not hungry and has sufficient wealth either obtained by inheritance or partition or in any other way he should not go about seeking for wealth and should not receive gifts (Manu IV. 34). If a brāhmaṇa cannot secure gifts from the above three, then he may do so from any other worthy *dvijāti*.²³⁸ When even that is not possible and the brāhmaṇa is in difficulties he was allowed to take a gift from anybody including a śūdra (Manu X. 102-103, Yāj. III. 41); but a brāhmaṇa should not seek gifts from a śūdra for the performance of a sacrifice or for *agnihotra*, as thereby he becomes a cāṇḍāla in another birth (Manu XI. 24 and 42, Yāj. 1. 127). A brāhmaṇa trying to support his hungry elders (parents etc.), his dependants (wife, servants etc.), and about to worship gods and honour guests may accept a gift from anybody (except a *patita*), but should not satisfy his own hunger with that wealth (Manu IV. 251, Vas. 14. 13, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 57. 13, Yāj. I. 216). Yāj., however, allowed this even for one's own livelihood. Gaut.²³⁹ (18. 24-25) allows a brāhmaṇa to receive even from a śūdra as much as would enable him to finish marriage ceremonies on which he has embarked or to get materials for a sacrifice when he has begun it. One may take gifts from a śūdra or ugra for paying a fee to one's *guru* at the end of the period of brahmacarya (Āp. Dh. S. I. 2. 7. 20-21). A brāhmaṇa was not to seek gifts from a king who was not of kṣatriya lineage nor from butchers, oilmen, keepers of liquor-shops and of brothels nor from courtesans (Manu IV. 84), nor from a king who is avaricious and transgresses the rules of the *śāstras*²⁴⁰ (Yāj. I. 140, Manu IV. 87). The Smṛtis lay down that it is the duty of the king to support śrotriyas (brāhmaṇas learned in the Veda) and brāhmaṇas who are incapable of struggling for their maintenance (Gaut. X. 9-10, Yāj. III. 44, Atri 24) and that if a śrotriya perishes through hunger in the domains of a king, that country would suffer from famine and disease (Manu VII. 134). Yāj. III. 44 lays down that it is the duty of a king to assign a proper means of livelihood to a brāhmaṇa in distress, having regard to the brāhmaṇa's conduct, descent, learning, Vedic study, *tapas*, the members in his family.²⁴¹ The ideal set before brāhmaṇas in the matter of *pratigraha* (receiving gifts) was that he, who though entitled to accept a gift (on account of his Vedic learning and *tapas*) does not take it, attains to the highest worlds (Yāj. I. 213); and Manu (IV. 186) says that though entitled to accept gifts a brāhmaṇa should not again and again resort to that method, since the spiritual power (due to Vedic study) that he acquires is lost by accepting gifts. Another rule about gifts is laid down in many works as follows. When a donor himself goes to the place of a worthy donee and makes a gift that is the best gift, when a donor calls a donee to his place and makes a gift it is middling and when a donor gives if begged by a donee it is inferior.²⁴² Manu (IV. 188-191) prescribes that a man, who is not learned, is reduced to ashes like fuel if he accepts a gift of gold, land, horses, cows, food, clothes, sesame and ghee, that a brāhmaṇa who, being devoid of learning and *tapas* (regulated life), desires to accept gifts sinks (into Hell) as one who sits in a stone boat sinks in water; and that therefore a brāhmaṇa who is not learned should be afraid of receiving gifts.