History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.157

v3.c43.157

The smṛtis prescribe that when a man accepts as a gift what he should not accept, he incurs sin from which he becomes free by giving up the thing, by reciting certain vedic mantras, (like the Gāyatrī) and by *tapas* (prāyaścitta). Vide Manu XI. 193 (= Viṣṇu Dh. S. 54. 28). This sin is said to be due to ‘asat-pratigraha’ which may arise either from the caste or actions of the donor (e. g. the donor may be a cāṇḍāla or *patita*) or from the time or place (e. g. taking a gift in Kurukṣetra or in an eclipse) or from the object given (such as a gift of wine or of an ewe, of the bed-stead of a deceased person or of the cow called ‘ubhayatomukhī’). Yāj. III. 289 and Manu XI. 194 (=Viṣṇu Dh. S. 54. 24) prescribe for *asat-pratigraha* the penance of staying in a cow-stable for one month subsisting on milk alone, observing complete celibacy, repeating the Gāyatrī mantra 3000 times every day. The donor, in the above cases, may incur no sin, but the donee does. The Dānakriyākaumudī (pp. 84-85) quotes passages from several purāṇas condemning the acceptance of gifts on the Ganges and other sacred rivers and places, and the gifts of elephants, horses, chariots, the beds and seats used by the dead, black deer-skin, the cow called ubhayatomukhī. The Dānacandrikā²⁰⁶⁰ quotes the Padmapurāṇa to the effect that a brāhmaṇa who is in great difficulty to maintain himself may accept a gift on the banks of the Ganges and other sacred rivers, but should himself make a gift of the 10th part of it and then he would incur no sin.