History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.10

v3.c43.10

It appears that although in the Ṛg. gifts of horses are spoken of as next in importance to gifts of cows, popular sentiment changed very early. In the Pauṇḍarīka sacrifice the fee was a thousand horses and in the Jyotiṣṭoma one cow and one horse (Śabara on Jaimini III. 4. 28). The Tai. S. II. 3. 12. 1 says¹⁹⁷⁹ 'Varuṇa indeed seizes him (i. e. he suffers from dropsy) who accepts the gift of a horse and that one should offer to Varuṇa as many offerings prepared on four potsherds as the horses accepted.' Jaimini (III. 4. 28-31) establishes two propositions in connection with this that the iṣṭi to Varuṇa is to be performed when the gift of a horse or horses is accepted in a Vedic sacrifice and that the iṣṭi is to be performed by the donor (and not by the acceptor). The Kāṭhaka Saṁ. XII. 6 also recommends that the horse should not be accepted as a gift, as it has two rows of teeth. In the Tai. Br. II. 2. 5 reference is made to the gift of gold, clothes, a cow, a horse, a human being, a bedstead and several other objects and their presiding deities are said to be Agni, Soma, Indra, Varuṇa, Prajāpati &c. The Tai. S. II. 2. 6. 3 says 'he who accepts an animal with two rows of teeth, such as a horse or a human being, (thereby) secures (to himself) a portion of *ātman* (self); he should offer a mess cooked on twelve potsherds to Vaiśvānara.' Manu X. 89 forbids the sale of the horse and other animals with uncloven hoofs; but the Pehoa inscription from Garibnath temple shows that brāhmaṇas engaged in the sale of horses and that a tax agreed to be levied from vendors and purchasers was made into a permanent fund for temples and priests (vide E. I. vol. I. p. 186). Gaut. 19. 16 mentions the horse among objects that are gifted by way of penance for sins. The Śāṅ. Br. (25. 14) says¹⁹⁸⁰ that he who after promising to gift all, does not give all, is reduced to falling into a deep pit or is killed. The Ait. Br. (30. 9) enjoins¹⁹⁸¹ that one should not accept a gift rejected by the priests and if one accepts it it should be given over to one's enemy.