History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.297

v2.c24.s1.297

The works on Dharmaśāstra give very interesting rules about the grounds on which respect was to be shown to a person. Honour ⁸³³ consists in saluting a person, or rising to meet him or allowing him to walk in front of one or giving him a garland, sandal-wood paste on festive occasions and the like. Manu (II. 136) and Viṣṇu Dh. S. (32. 16) say that wealth kindred, age, (performance of) religious rites and sacred knowledge confer title to respect, but each succeeding one out of these five is superior to each preceding one. Gaut. (VI. 18-20) is slightly different; he says 'wealth, relations, occupation, birth, learning and age must be honoured; each later named is more important than each preceding one; but Vedic learning is more important than all (the rest)'. Vas. Dh. S. 13. 56-57 also says that learning, wealth, age, relationship and religious actions are titles to respect, but each preceding one is more important than each succeeding one. Yāj. I. 116 puts the order as vidyā, karma, age, relationship and wealth (i. e. wealth is the least ground for giving honour). Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I. 35 says that if respect is not paid to *guru* (parents), ācārya, upādhyāya and ṛtvik (they are arranged in descending order) one incurs sin, but if honour is not shown on the ground of learning, wealth &c. there is no sin but one loses happiness and success. Manu II. 137 says that a śūdra who is beyond 90 years is still a child to a learned brāhmaṇa. In order to show that Vedic learning is superior to seniority of age Manu (II. 151-153) narrates the story of a young scion of the Aṅgiras gotra who taught his pitṛs and addressed them as 'little sons' and whose action was supported by the gods with the remark that a man destitute of knowledge was a child and he who taught him the Veda was his father. This story is referred to expressly by Baud. Dh. S. I. 4. 47 and tacitly by Gaut. VI. 20. It is borrowed from the Tāṇḍya Mahābrāhmaṇa ⁸³⁴ (13. 3. 24). Manu II. 155 clinches the argument by saying 'the seniority of brāhmaṇas springs from (sacred) knowledge, of kṣatriyas from valour, of vaiśyas from (the possession) of corn and other wealth and only among śūdras is age a ground of seniority'.