History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c43.77.2

v3.c43.77.2

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.