History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.77.1

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.