History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.141

v5.c73.t1.141

It has already been seen at pp. 413-14 what kinds of food were recommended or condemned for śrāddha. The Matsyapurāṇa⁹⁴⁸ states that food containing milk and curds and clarified butter from cow's milk mixed with sugar gives satisfaction to all pitṛs for one month and that whatever food, whether cow's milk or ghee or rice cooked in milk, is mixed with honey, yields inexhaustible results. The Brahmapurāṇa also (220. 182-184) provides that such eatables as are sweet and oily and are slightly sour and pungent should be served in śrāddha and one should shun eatables that are very sour or very saltish or very pungent, since they are *āsuva* (fit for *asuras*). Great emphasis was laid on serving preparations of food made from *māṣa* beans. The Auśanasa⁹⁴⁹-smṛti pronounces the threat that the brāhmaṇa, who, when dining at śrāddha, does not eat māṣa food, becomes a beast for twenty-one births after death. The Sm. C. quotes a smṛti text saying that a śrāddha in which no māṣa preparation is offered is as good as not performed.