History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.77
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.77
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v3.c43.77.1
As to spending money for the marriages of brāhmaṇas and settling them as householders, a few words may be said here. Dakṣa²⁰¹⁹ III. 32-33 says 'The merit of him, that establishes a brāhmaṇa who is without father or mother by performing his saṃskāras and by getting him married, is beyond reckoning. A man does not secure that bliss by observance of agnihotra or the performance of Agniṣṭoma, which he secures by establishing a brāhmaṇa in life'. Aparārka (p. 377) quotes a long passage from the Kālikāpurāṇa about *Naiveśika dāna*. Its purport is briefly as follows: 'The donor should choose eleven brāhmaṇas of śrotriya families (devoted to the study of the Veda) and of good character and conduct, should build eleven houses for them, should get them married at his expense, should furnish the houses with stores of corn, with cattle and maid servants, beds, seats, vessels of clay and copper and other utensils for taking food and with garments; and having thus furnished the houses, should settle the eleven brāhmaṇas in the eleven houses and for their maintenance bestow upon each one hundred *nivartanas* of land or a hamlet, or half a village; he should induce the brāhmaṇas to be agnihotrins. By so doing he secures all the merit that is secured by the performance of sacrifices, vratas, various dānas or pilgrimages to sacred places and enjoys in heaven all pleasures.
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A man who is unable to do as much as above may settle only one brāhmaṇa according to his means and he secures the same rewards'. In the Epigraphic records there are numerous instances of kings spending for the marriages of brāhmaṇas. For example, the Aphsad Inscription of Ādityasena (vide Gupta Inscriptions No. 42, p. 203) speaks of gifts of agrahāras on the marriages of one hundred brāhmaṇa girls to brāhmaṇas. A copper-plate grant of the Śilāhāra prince Gaṇḍarāditya speaks of the king having got 16 brāhmaṇas married at his expense and of having created endowments of three *nivartanas* for each for their maintenance at the time of their marriages (vide J. B. B. R. A. S. vol. 13, p. 1, dated 1032 śake). As the brāhmaṇas were supposed to lead a life of comparative poverty, plain living and high thinking and as they were the inheritors, preservers and transmitters of the sacred literature of the country, as they also engaged in teaching without stipulating for any fee, the State that had in those days no settled educational system as in modern times deemed it its duty to provide the resources which would enable the brāhmaṇas to carry on their self-imposed task. Yāj. II. 185 declares that the king should set apart in his capital a place for the habitation of brāhmaṇas learned in the Veda, should establish them there, should provide means of maintenance for them and then say to them 'follow your duties' (svadharma). Aparārka quotes (p.
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792) thereon from Bṛhaspati several verses that add 'the king should bestow on the brāhmaṇas who are learned and kindle the sacred fires (agnihotrins) houses and lands under his own edicts from which no taxes in the present or future would be levied. The brāhmaṇas so settled should perform for the citizens their religious rites whether daily or to be performed on occasions or *kāmya* or for averting evil omens or for the sake of prosperity and should give decisions in the cases of doubts. They should make rules and conventions for the whole village or for corporations and guilds and for religious purposes. Those rules must be observed and when there is trouble caused by rogues and thieves all must join to put it down and that object must not be left to one person.'²⁰²⁰ These prescriptions indicate what benefit was expected of the marriages and settlement of learned brāhmaṇas. Kauṭ. II. 1 also prescribes that lands free from taxes and fines should be settled upon *purohitas, śrotriyas* &c. There is nothing peculiar to India or to the caste system in this. Among the numerous charitable purposes mentioned in the preamble to the Statute of Elizabeth (43 Eliz. chap. 4) which (preamble) is even now applicable in England 'the marriage of poor maids' is one.