History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c37.13.2

v3.c37.13.2

The Śāṅ. gṛ. IV. 12. 15 does the same and uses the same word (S. B. E. vol. 29, p. 125) and in II. 6. 6 mentions a *deva-kula* (god's house). Āp. Dh. S. (I. 11. 30. 28) has a similar rule. Manu (II. 176) directs the brahmacārin to worship images, requires a person to circumambulate images that he may meet with when on a journey (IV. 39), not to cross the shadow of images (IV. 130) and ordains that witnesses be sworn in the presence of the images of gods and brāhmaṇas (VIII. 87). *Vide* also Manu III. 117 and IX. 285. The Viṣṇu Dh. S. (23. 34, 63. 27) mentions the images of gods (devatārcā) and speaks of the worship of Bhagavat Vāsudeva as an image. In Vasiṣṭha XI. 31, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 69. 7, 30. 15, 70 13, 91. 10 the word ‘devatāyatana’ or ‘devāyatana’ occurs. Unfortunately the dates of all these works are far from being certain. But no scholar will assign the Mānava, Baudhāyana and Śāṅkhyāyana gṛhyasūtras and the dharmasūtras of Gautama and Āpastamba to a later date than the 5th or 4th century B. C. Pāṇini, whom no scholar will place later than 300 B. C. (though there are some who place him several centuries earlier), teaches ¹⁶⁹⁶ that an image by attending on which a person maintains himself and which is not for sale has the same name as the god whose image it is e. g. an image is called Śiva or Skanda when the worshipper makes his livelihood by attending on the image of Śiva or Skanda (and appropriating the offerings placed before the image) which is not for sale.