History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.130.2

v3.c40.130.2

In the Mahābhārata (Udyogaparva 59. 5) both Vāsudeva and Arjuna are described as intoxicated by drinking the liquor prepared from honey and the Tantravārtika tries¹⁸⁹⁹ to establish that there was nothing wrong in this as they were kṣatriyas and as Manu XI. 93-94 and Gaut. II. 25 are to be construed as stated above viz. all intoxicants are forbidden to brāhmaṇas and only paiṣṭī to kṣatriyas and vaiśyas. Intoxicants are not forbidden to śūdras, though Vṛddha-Hārīta (IX. 277-278) declares that some desire that good śūdras should abstain from surā also and that Manu says that even a śūdra becomes *patita* by falsehood, by partaking of meat and intoxicants and by stealing another's wealth or wife. Another rule was that brahmacārins, of whatever varṇa, had to abstain entirely from every kind of intoxicant (Āp. Dh. S. I. 1. 2. 23, Manu II. 177, Yāj. I. 33). Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I. 33 refers to a passage from the Caraka-śākhā which states that when Śvetaketu suffered from a skin disease (kilāsa), the Aśvins told him to take madhu (honey or wine) and meat as medicine, and when he asked how being a brahmacārin he could do so, they replied that a person must first save himself (from disease and death) in all ways¹⁹⁰⁰ as a man can say 'I shall perform meritorious acts' only if he lives. Aparārka quotes the Brahmapurāṇa and says that in the Kali age human sacrifice, Aśvamedha sacrifice and intoxicating drinks were forbidden to the three varṇas and to brāhmaṇas in all yugas (ages).