History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.568.2

v4.c63.t2.568.2

205) gives certain illustrations of such practices viz gifts, *japa*, *mātryajña* (offerings to the mother Goddesses), the festival of Indra's banner, fairs held at temples, fasts by maidens on the 4th day of a month, gifts of lamps on the first day of Kārtika, the spring¹⁶⁴⁰ festival on the first day of the dark half of Phālguna &c. The Tantravārtika is careful to point out that many activities such as agriculture, menial service or trade that are the means of securing wealth and pleasures and that give rise to several fixed and varying acts and also such actions as eating sumptuous food, drinking, sleeping on soft beds, possessing a charming house and garden, engaging in painting, singing and dancing, enjoying the fragrance of sandalwood and flowers, all of which are common to *mlecchas* and *Āryas*, are not deemed by any one to be part of dharma and that it does not follow that, because a few actions (of *śiṣṭas*) are accepted as dharma, all their actions are to be looked upon as dharma.¹⁶⁴¹ In ordinary life certain practices only are deemed to be śiṣṭācāra, while there are certain other acts that are common to all human beings (including śiṣṭas), but are not so regarded. Certain practices such as worship of gods and honouring brāhmaṇas are seen to be common among all people and yet do constitute dharma, because that is deemed to be so by the śiṣṭas.