History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c38.33

v3.c38.33

These directions to give food even to outcasts, dogs and birds were the outcome of the noble sentiment of universal kindliness and charity, the idea that One Spirit pervades and illumines the meanest of creatures and binds all together. The Śāṅ. gṛ. (II. 14)¹⁷⁸² winds up its vaiśvadeva section with this fine exhortation "let him throw food to dogs, to śvapacas (eaters of dog-flesh), to birds on the ground; let him eat nothing without having cut off a portion (to be offered as a bali); let him not eat alone, nor before others (relatives and guests), since the mantra says 'the fool gets food in vain' (Ṛg. X. 117. 6).' The Mahābhārata (Vanaparva II. 59) says that offering food to dogs, śvapacas and birds on the ground is known as vaiśvadeva, which is performed in the morning and evening. The same verse occurs at Anuśāsanaparva 97. 22-23. Aparārka p. 145 says that vaiśvadeva comprises all actions from the offering into fire oblations of food up to the throwing of food to dogs and the like in the morning and the evening.