History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.361

v2.c24.s1.361

Similarly Manu IV. 163 forbids nāstikya⁸⁷⁵ (holding that there is no soul or no Hereafter) and the reviling of the Veda and in XI. 56 regards the latter as a grave sin equal to drinking wine, while Yāj. III. 288 treats it as grave as brahmahatyā. Gaut. 21. 1 mentions the nāstika among patitas along with brāhmaṇa murderer and drinker of wine. Viṣṇu Dh. S. 37. 4 includes the reviling of Veda among upapātakas (lesser sins). Manu II. 11 says that he who disrespects veda and smṛti by relying on syllogistic reasoning is a reviler of Veda and a nāstika (atheist) and should be excluded from social intercourse by good men. Vas. Dh. S. XII. 41 says 'to hold the vedas as unauthoritative, to carp at the words of the sages, and to be wavering on all points lead to one's destruction'. Vide Viṣṇu Dh. S. 71. 83 and Anuśāsanaparva 37. 11 for the same (in the latter the 2nd pāda is śāstrāṇām cābhilaṅghanam).