History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.12
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.12
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who has studied the Veda and is able to teach the whole Veda with its aṅgas, a Śrotriya—these persons sanctify the company if they eat at a funeral repast. Gaut. 15. 28, Baud. Dh. S. II. 8.2, Manu III. 185–186, Yāj I. 219, Varāhapurāṇa 14.2 contain almost the same words about those who sanctify the company of diners (i. e. who are *paṅktipāvana*). The Anuśāsanaparva (90. 25–31), Kūrmapurāṇa II. 21. 1–14, Matsya 16 7–13, Brahmapurāṇa 220. 101–104, Vāyu 79. 56–59 and 83. 52–55, Skanda VI. 217. 21–25 give long lists of paṅktipāvana brāhmaṇas. The Hir. Gṛ. II. 10.2, Baud. Dh. S. II 2. 7, Kūrma (II. 21. 14) and others say that a performer of śrāddha should invite one who is not a relative connected by marriage (such as a maternal uncle) nor one who is of the same gotra, nor one who is connected with the performer by Veda study (i. e. is his teacher or pupil), nor a friend nor one who expects monetary help from the performer. Manu (III. 138–139) provides that one should not invite at a śrāddha dinner a personal friend, that one may gain a friend by making valuable gifts to him (on other occasions), that one should feed at a śrāddha a brāhmaṇa whom he does not deem either his friend or foe and that he who performs śrāddhas and offerings to gods chiefly to gain friends reaps no reward after death by those śrāddhas or offerings. But Manu III. 144 (= Kūrma II. 21–22) provides that one may invite even a friend but not a foe though the latter may be learned. Manu (III.
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135–137 and 145–147) lays down that the main or best rule to be followed is to present śrāddha food to those who are devoted to spiritual knowledge, that between a man who has studied one whole recension of the Veda but whose father was not a śrotriya and one who is himself not a śrotriya but whose father had studied a whole recension of the Veda (i. e. whose father was a śrotriya) the latter is the more worthy of the two, that one should strive to feed at a śrāddha an adherent of the Ṛgveda who has studied one entire recension of that Veda or a follower of the Yajurveda who has studied one Śākhā thereof or a singer of sāmans who has finished one recension of the Sāmaveda and that if one of these preceding three is honoured and dines at a śrāddha, the ancestors of the performer will be gratified up to the seventh generation for a very long time. Hārīta (q. by Hemādri on śrāddha p. 392 and Kalpataru on śr. pp. 66–67) describes the qualifications of those who are pāṅkteya brāhmaṇas viz. they must be born in a high family (possessing four characteristics), must be endowed with learning (of six kinds) and *śīla* (character of 13 kinds) and good conduct (of 16 kinds). Śaṅkha-Likhita⁸⁶³ give a long list of pāṅkteya (fit to be associated with in a *paṅkti* i. e. row of diners) brāhmaṇas, viz he who knows the Veda and the Vedāṅgas (viz. phonetics, kalpa or śrauta ritual, grammar, Nirukta, metrics and astronomy); one who keeps the five fires;
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one who has studied the Veda with its *aṅgas*; one who knows Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Upaniṣads and Dharmaśāstra; a śrotriya, a trināciketa, trimadhu, trisuparṇaka and one that has studied Jyeṣṭhasāman; one who has studied Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Upaniṣads and Dharmaśāstra; who is devoted to Veda; who always keeps sacred fires; who is obedient to his parents and devoted to Dharmaśāstra. Similar rules are laid down by Viṣṇu Dh. S 83, Bṛhat-Parāśara p. 150, Vṛddha-Gautama p. 581, Prajāpati verses 70–72, Laghu-Śātātapa verses 99–100, Auśanasasmṛti (Jīv. vol. I, pp. 523–524). As Medhātithi⁸⁶⁴ on Manu III. 147 says the gist of all these passages is that a learned brāhmaṇa who has studied the Veda, whose conduct is good, whose family is famous, who is the son of a śrotriya father and who is not related to the performer must be invited and all the rest is mere arthavāda (by way of eulogy). Manu (III. 128) laid down two propositions viz. all food offered as sacrifice to the gods and manes must be given only to a brāhmaṇa who studies the Veda and that whatever is presented to the most worthy brāhmaṇa (among brāhmaṇas studying the Veda) brings in the greatest rewards. Then Manu (III. 183) declares that *paṅktipāvana* brāhmaṇas are those that sanctify a row of diners among whom sit some who are tainted by (latent) blemishes that make them unfit to be among the diners. Then Manu (III. 184–186) gives examples of paṅktipāvana brāhmaṇas viz.
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those who are the foremost among students of all the Vedas or their expository works and who are born in a family of unbroken descent of Vedic students, who are Trināciketa &c. Hemādri (on śr. pp. 391–395) and Kalpataru (śr. pp. 64–65) quote numerous verses from Yama on *paṅktipāvana*.