History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.53

v3.c43.53

The texts took care to set limits to a man's generosity. After emphasizing in very eloquent language the obligation to share one's possessions, however meagre, with others, Veda-Vyāsa²⁰⁰⁶ (IV. 30-31) inculcates the doctrine that charity begins at home. Āp. Dh. S. II. 4. 9. 10-12, Baud. Dh. S. II. 3. 19 ordain that one should not stint one's dependents (whom one is bound to maintain), one's servants and slaves for distributing food to guests and others. Yāj. II. 175 prescribes that one should make gifts in such a way as not to cause detriment to one's family. Bṛhaspati²⁰⁰⁷ explains this by saying that one may give away wealth that is over and above what is required for maintaining one's family and for clothing and that the charity of one who disregards this rule is something that is sweet like honey at first but like poison in its effect. In this Bṛhaspati only echoes what Manu says (XI. 9-10) 'the charity of him who has wealth enough to make gifts to strangers, when his own people live a life of misery, is only a false imitation of dharma (and not the true dharma), it is at first like honey but will taste like poison (later). Whatever a man does for his welfare in the next world by stinting those whom he is bound to maintain results in unhappiness to him while living and also after death'. The Anuśāsana parva (37. 2-3) declares that if one makes a gift stinting one's servants, he makes himself a sinner, even though one may say that one would give whatever any one begs for (compare Luke VI. 30 'give to every man that asketh of thee'). Hemādri quotes²⁰⁰⁸ Śivadharma to the effect that a man should set apart three parts out of five from his acquisitions for himself and his family and two parts for dharma, as life is evanescent.