History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.t2.583

v4.c63.t2.583

Jai. I. 3. 15–23 constitute what is called Holākādhikaraṇa, or Sāmānyaśrutikalpanādhikaraṇa. The first two and the last two sūtras are the most important. Certain practices¹⁶⁴⁸ like the Holākā (spring) festival are observed by the easterners, certain others like Āhninaibuka (worship of growing Karañja or Arka or other trees as handed down in one's family) by the southerners, and the Udvṛṣabhayajña (honouring oxen on the Full Moon of Jyeṣṭha and making them run a race) by the northerners. The question is: whether, in making an inference about these practices being based on Veda, one was to suppose that the inferred Vedic text also should be restricted to the easterners and the like¹⁶⁴⁹. The pūrvapakṣa view is that the śruti to be inferred as the basis of the respective practices must be deemed to be restricted to certain persons only (such as the easterners i. e. *prācyas* &c.). The established conclusion is that such practices must be deemed to be meant for all, since the general rule about vedic injunctions is that they are applicable to all. The performer specially meant by each Vedic injunction is known in either of three ways,¹⁶⁵⁰ viz. by capability, by non-prohibition and by the employment of a special epithet or attribute. When it is said ‘*svargakāmo yajeta*’ then only the three twice-born classes are meant, for, they alone are capable of tending the sacred fires and of possessing Vedic learning and a śūdra is not a fit person to whom that injunction can apply. Those who are guilty of grave sins (*patita*) and the impotent are prohibited from performing Vedic rites. When the Veda says ‘*rājā rājasūyena yajeta*’ there is a special attribute of the performer (viz. being a kṣatriya) prescribed by the śruti and so no one else can perform Rājasūya. When none of these three exists a Vedic *vidhi* is in general meant for all (*sarvadharma*). The practices of Holākā, Vṛṣabhayajña and the like should not be held to be restricted to certain countries or people only, but should be inferred to be applicable to all. When a man leaves the east and goes to the south, he may still perform the Holākā festival; while a man from the eastern country itself may not perform it at all. Further the words ‘southern, eastern and northern’ are relative. A country that is called southern may be to the north of another. Therefore Holākā and other practices are not invariably concomitant with particular countries or peoples. Nor can it be said that those practices require those particular countries for their performance in the way in which śruti expressly requires the Vaiśvadeva rite (one of the four cāturmāsyas) to be performed on a spot that slopes towards the east. The Tantravārtika¹⁶⁵¹ points out that persons receive appellations from names of countries on various grounds as being born in a country or as residing therein or as coming from that country or as going to that country. Medhātithi on Manu VIII. 46 says the same.