History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c20.82.1

v2.c20.82.1

*Sale and barter*—We have seen above that a brāhmaṇa is allowed to maintain himself by trade in distress or difficulties (*āpad*). But there were very great restrictions as to what things could be sold by a brāhmaṇa. According to Gaut. (VII. 8-14) a brāhmaṇa should not engage in the sale of fragrant things (like sandal-wood), fluids (like oils, ghee &c.), cooked food, sesame, hemp (and hempen articles like bags), kṣauma (linen), deer-skin, dyed and cleanly washed clothes, milk and its products (like curds &c.), roots, flowers, fruits, herbs (used as drugs), honey, meat, grass, water, deleterious drugs (like opium, poison), animals (for being killed), men (as slaves), barren cows, heifers and cows liable to abortion. He adds (Gautama VII. 15) that according to some a brāhmaṇa could not sell land, rice, *yava*, goats and sheep, horses, bulls, freshly delivered cows and oxen that are yoked to carts. These restrictions did not apply to a kṣatriya engaging in trade. Āp. Dh. S. I. 7. 20. 12-13²⁷⁷ has a similar list but adds among forbidden articles of sale 'weapons, sticky things (śleṣma, like lac), young stalks (tokma), fermented liquids (kiṇva), the expectation of merit (sukṛtāśā) and says that among corns sesame and rice are on no account to be sold. Baud. Dh. S. II. 1. 77-78 condemns the sale of sesame and rice by saying that he who sells them sells respectively his *pitṛs* (dead ancestors) and his *prāṇas*.