History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c39.2
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c39.2
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*Nṛyajña* or *Manuṣya-yajña*: (*Honouring guests*).—Manu (III. 70) states that this consists in honouring guests. In the oldest hymns of the Ṛgveda fire is described as a guest in the house of the sacrificer. In Ṛg. I. 73. 1 Agni is described as lying in a pleasant spot and pleased like a guest (syonaśīr-atithir-na prīṇāno). Vide Ṛg. V. 1. 8¹⁷⁸⁵ and 9, V. 4. 5, VII. 42. 4 for fire being called *atithi*. In Ṛg. IV. 4. 10 it is said of Agni 'you become the protector, the friend, of him who offers you hospitality in the usual (or proper) order.' Vide Ṛg. IV. 33. 7 and Tai. S. I. 2. 10. 1 for the word *ātithya*. Atharvaveda IX. 6 is an eulogy of hospitality in which the various stages in the reception and feeding of a guest are metaphorically represented as the various actions performed in a sacrifice.¹⁷⁸⁶ The Tai. S. V. 2. 2. 4 refers to the fact that 'when a guest comes, hospitality in which ghee abounds, is offered to him' and it remarks that 'one who comes in a chariot and one who comes in a cart are the two most honoured among guests.¹⁷⁸⁷ The Tai. S. (VI. 2. 1. 2) says 'hospitality is offered to all the followers accompanied by whom a king comes'. Vide Ait. Br. II. 9 for almost the same words. The Śāṅ. Br. II. 9 remarks¹⁷⁸⁸ 'when a man offers oblations at sunrise, he indeed offers hospitality to a great god who has started on a journey.' The Tai. Br. (II. 1.
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3) shows that a guest was honoured by having a lit lamp placed before him and then food was served to him.¹⁷⁸⁹ The Ait. Br. (25. 5) says that a guest should not be refused in the evening.¹⁷⁹⁰ The Śat. Br. (II. 1.4. 2. S. B. E. vol. 12, p. 291) remarks that 'it would be unbecoming for a person to take food before men who are staying with him as guests have eaten'. The Śatapatha shows that an ox or a goat was cooked for a guest, either a king or a brāhmaṇa (III. 4. 1. 2). Vide also Ait. Br. 3. 4 for the offering of an ox or barren cow to a king or another deserving person coming as a guest. Yāj. I. 109 also says that a big ox or a goat was to be kept apart for a guest learned in the Veda. But the Mit. and other¹⁷⁹¹ medieval writers to whom flesh-eating was an anathema and an unspeakable sin for a brāhmaṇa remark that an ox or a goat was to be understood as set apart for the guest to flatter him (with the words 'this ox is yours') just as one says in humility 'all this house is yours' and that the ox or goat was not meant to be given in gift or to be killed since it would be impossible to find an ox each time a śrotriya guest came. The Ait. Ār. I. 1. 1 remarks 'whoever is good and has attained eminence is a (real) guest, people do not treat with hospitality one who is undeserving.'¹⁷⁹² In the Tai. Up. (I. 11. 2) one of the exhortations of the teacher to the pupil returning home is 'atithi-devo bhava' (honour guests). The same Upaniṣad says elsewhere (III. 10.
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1) "let him never turn away a stranger from his house, that is the rule. Therefore a man should by all means acquire much food, for people say (to the guest) 'there is food ready for him.' If he gives food amply, food is given to him amply". In the Kaṭhopaniṣad¹⁷⁹³ (I. 7-9) it is said 'a brāhmaṇa entering a house as a guest is (like) fire. People offer this (well-known) appeasement to him. Oh, son of Vivasvat, offer him water (to wash his feet). If a brāhmaṇa guest stays in a man's house without food, he cuts off (destroys) the hopes and expectations, (fruits of) the friendship (of the good), the rewards of sacrifices and charitable acts, sons and cattle.' Then Yama offered to bestow three boons on Naciketas as some penance for allowing Naciketas to remain without food in his house for three days. The Nirukta¹⁷⁹⁴ IV. 5 in explaining Ṛg. V. 4. 5 (juṣṭo damūnā atithirduroṇa) derives the word 'atithi' from the root 'at' to go and also from 'tithi' (day) and 'a' meaning 'comes' (from 'i' with 'abhi'). Vide Manu III. 102 for another derivation; also Parāśara I. 42 and Mārk. 29. 2-9. Manu and others say that an *atithi* is so called because he does not stay for a whole *tithi* (i. e. day) and 'an atithi is a brāhmaṇa who stays for one night only as a guest.'