History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.544

v4.c63.t2.544

Śabara (on Jai. I. 3. 4) explains that the three smṛti passages stated above are not authoritative since it is possible to point out how they originated in a visible worldly motive such as greed. When a visible motive can be pointed out for any smṛti text, it is not proper to infer that it is based on the Veda and has an unseen spiritual motive. Śabara¹⁶²⁴ postulates the reasons in the way of a modern man finding fault with priests. Some priests covered the whole of the Audumbarī post with cloth, because they coveted the cloth as part of the fee; others who desired a free meal when hungry took food at the house of a dīkṣita even after he had purchased the Soma plant; certain others in order to conceal their absence of virility went in for Veda study for 48 years. The Tantravārtika tries to show that in all these cases there is really no visible motive such as covetousness (pp. 188-189).