History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.43

v2.c20.43

28 say that a gift given to a brāhmaṇa (who is only so by caste, but is not learned), to a śrotriya (or ācārya) and to one who has completely mastered all the Vedas (with their subsidiary lores) respectively confers merit which is twice, a hundred thousand times or an infinite number of times more than the merit conferred by a gift to a non-brāhmaṇa. Gautama²⁴⁷ (V. 19-20) and Baudhāyana II. 3. 24 further make it obligatory to give outside the sacrificial altar according to one's ability a portion of one's wealth to a brāhmaṇa, *śrotriya* and *veda-pāraga* when they seek help for giving a dakṣiṇā to their teacher (at the end of the period of studenthood), for their own marriage, for medicine, for their own maintenance (that day), for a sacrifice, for their own study or journey, and when everything has been given in a Viśvajit sacrifice and that one must give cooked food to all others who beg for it (except brāhmaṇa, śrotriya and vedapāraga). Manu (XI. 1-3) gives practically the same rule. In the Vaiśvadeva the householder was enjoined to give food to every one including even dogs and cāṇḍālas, as we shall see later on (under²⁴⁸ Vaiśvadeva). Medhātithi on Manu IV. 5 says that when a person makes a gift through compassion it is not the *dāna* and *pratigraha* spoken of by the śāstra; just as when a man gives instruction as to what is beneficial he does not care to see what the caste of the person to be benefitted by the advice is, so a gift made through compassion is made irrespective of caste; and that when non-brāhmaṇas reduced to a helpless condition take what is given by others, it cannot be said that they are assuming to themselves the livelihood by *pratigraha* which is a peculiar means of livelihood for brāhmaṇas.²⁴⁹