History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.38
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.38
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Brāhmaṇas were declared to be *apāṅkteya*⁸⁷⁹ (not fit to sit in the row of brāhmaṇa diners or as defiling a row of diners at śrāddha) on various grounds, such as bodily and mental defects and diseases, pursuit of certain avocations, moral lapses, being guilty of crimes, being followers of unorthodox systems, being inhabitants of certain countries. A distinction has to be made between brāhmaṇas who should not be invited and brāhmaṇas that are *apāṅkteya* or *paṅktidūṣaka*. For example, one should not ordinarily invite a friend or a sagotra brāhmaṇa even though learned, but these are not apāṅkteya. The Ap.⁸⁸⁰ Dh. S. states that one suffering from white leprosy, a bald man, the violator of another man's bed, the son of a brāhmaṇa who was a soldier by profession, the son of (brāhmaṇa who had become like) a śūdra from a brāhmaṇa woman—these defile the company if they are invited at a śrāddha repast. Vas. Dh. S. XI. 19 also gives a brief list viz. 'one should avoid naked (ascetics), those suffering from white leprosy, impotent men, blind men, those who have black teeth, those afflicted with black leprosy and those who have deformed nails.' Very long lists of persons unfit to be invited at a śrāddha are given by Gaut. XV. 16-19, Manu III. 150-166, Yāj. I. 222-224, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 82. 3-29, Atri (verses 345-359 and 385-388), Bṛhad-Yama III. 34-38, Bṛhat-Parāśara pp. 149-150, Vṛddha-Gautama pp.
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580-581, the Vāyu-purāṇa 83.61-70, Anuśāsana-parva 90.6-11, Matsyapurāṇa 16.14-17, Kūrma (II 21. 23-47), Skanda VII. 1.205.58-72, VI. 217.11-20, Varāhapurāṇa 14.4-6, Brahma-purāṇa 220. 127-135, Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa (Upodghāta 15.39-44 and 19.30-41), Mārkaṇḍeya 28.26-30, Viṣṇupurāṇa (III. 15.5-8), Nāradapurāṇa (pūrvārdha 28.11-18), Saurapurāṇa (19.7-9) and several other works. The list in the Manusmṛti is one of the longest and that is set out here. One should not invite a brāhmaṇa that is (1) a thief, (2) an outcaste, (3) an impotent man, (4) an atheist, (5) one who wears his hair in braids (a student yet learning Veda);
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(6) one who does not study the Veda, (7) one who is afflicted with a skin disease, (8) a gambler, (9) one officiating as a priest for a multitude of men, (10) a physician, (11) temple priest (who worships images for money), (12) vendor of meat, (13) one who makes his livelihood as shopkeeper, (14 and 15) a paid servant of a village or of a king, (16) one with deformed nails, (17) one whose teeth are black (naturally), (18) one who opposes his *guru*, (19) one who has forsaken his sacred fire (*śrauta* or *smārta*) without a proper cause, (20) a usurer, (21) one suffering from consumption, (22) one who subsists by tending cattle (though not in distress), (23 and 24) a younger brother who marries or kindles sacred fires before his elder brother, (25) one who neglects the five (daily) sacrifices, (26) an enemy of brāhmanas or of Veda, (27 and 28) an elder brother who marries or kindles sacred fires after his young brother, (29) one who is a member of a guild or corporation, (30) an actor or singer, (31) one who has broken the vow of student-hood by unchastity, (32) one whose (only or first wife) is a śūdra female, (33) the son of a remarried woman, (34) a squint-eyed or one-eyed man, (35) one in whose house a paramour of his wife resides, (36) one who teaches for hire, (37) one who is taught by a hired teacher, (38) one whose teacher is a śūdra, (39) one who instructs śūdra pupils, (40) one whose speech is harsh and untrue, (41) the son of an adulteress, (42) the son of a widow, (43) one who forsakes his mother, father or teacher without (adequate) cause, (44) one who has contracted an alliance with *patitas* either through the Veda (i.
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e.
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as teacher or pupil) or through marriage, (45) an incendiary, (46) one who undertakes sea-voyages, (47) a bard, (48) an oil-man, (49) a false witness (or forger of documents or counterfeiter of coins), (50) one who has a dispute with his father in a law court, (51) one who induces others to gamble, (52) one who drinks wine, (53) one afflicted with a disease (in punishment for crimes in former lives), (54) one accused of a grave sin, (55) a hypocrite, (56) a vendor of substances used for flavouring food (such as sugar-cane juice or molasses), (57) a manufacturer of bows and arrows, (58) one who is the husband of a woman married before her elder sister, (59) the betrayer of a friend, (60) the keeper of a gambling house, (61) one who learns (the Veda) from his own son, (62) an epilectic man, (63) one who has scrofulous swellings of the glands, (64) one afflicted with white leprosy, (65) an informer, (66) a lunatic, (67) a blind man, (68) a caviller of the Veda, (69) a trainer of elephants, horses, oxen or camels, (70) one subsisting by the practice of astrology, (71) a bird-fancier, (72) one who gives instructions in the use of weapons, (73) one who diverts watercourses, (74) one engaged in obstructing watercourses, (75) one subsisting by teaching or practising architecture, (76) a messenger, (77) one who plants trees for money, (78) a breeder of sporting dogs, (79) a falconer, (80) a defiler of a maiden (or who ascribes falsely fault to a maiden), (81) one given to injuring living beings, (82) one who gains his livelihood from śūdras, (83) one who officiates at a sacrifice on behalf of guilds, (84) one who does not follow the ordinary rules of conduct (as welcoming a guest &c), (85) one who has no energy for religious acts, (86) one who constantly begs for gifts, (87) one who subsists by agriculture (carried on personally), (88) one who suffers from elephantiasis, (89) one who is condemned by good men, (90) a shepherd, (91) a keeper of buffaloes, (92) the husband of a remarried woman, (93) a carrier of dead bodies (for money)⁸⁸¹.
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Manu III. 167 says that a brāhmaṇa who knows the sacred laws should avoid or shun at both (sacrifices to Gods and to Maṇes) the worst of brāhmaṇas enumerated above whose conduct is reprehensible and who are unworthy of sitting in a row of brāhmanas at a śrāddha repast. Manu III. 170-182 indulge in pointing out how feeding such unworthy brāhmaṇas results in the loss of the gratification of pitṛs and state that the food eaten by such unworthy persons becomes or is to be deemed as equal to foul things. The Kūrmapurāṇa ⁸⁸² forbids inviting at śrāddhas Bauddha ascetics, Nirgranthas (devotees who have withdrawn from the world and wander about naked or as beggars), those that follow the Pañcarātra and Pāśupata doctrines, those that are kāpālikas (devotees of Śiva of the left hand order) and other similar heretical people. The Viṣṇupurāṇa (III. 18. 70 ff) narrates how a king after a bath in a holy place talked with a heretic and had to pass in consequence through the bodies of a dog, a jackal, wolf, vulture, a crow, a crane and peacock and ultimately became freed from the taint by a bath at the avabhṛtha in an Aśvamedha sacrifice. The same Purāṇa provides (III. 18 97) that one should avoid talking with or touching heretics, particularly at the time of a religious rite or when one has consecrated for a solemn sacrifice.
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The Vāyupurāṇa ⁸⁸³ provides that people who are ‘nagna’ should not be allowed to see a śrāddha and then defines ‘nagna’ people as follows: ‘the three Vedas are declared to be a protective covering for all beings and therefore those who foolishly abandon the Vedas are called ‘nagna’; those who vainly keep matted hair, those who shave their heads for no purpose, those who are nagna (naked) without any cause, those who engage in certain observances and mutter certain words aimlessly are called *nagnāḥ*’. Just as certain countries were declared unfit for the performance of śrāddhas (vide note 853 above), so certain brāhmaṇas hailing from certain countries were declared in some works as not fit to be invited at a śrāddha.⁸⁸⁴ For example, the Matsyapurāṇa states that brāhmaṇas that are ungrateful, that are atheists, that stay in Mleccha countries or the countries of Triśaṅku, Karavīra, Āndhra, Cīna, Draviḍa and Koṅkaṇa should be carefully avoided at the time of śrāddha. Hemādri (on śrāddha p. 505) quotes from the Saurapurāṇa the following: 'Brāhmaṇas hailing from the countries of Aṅga, Vaṅga, Kaliṅga, Saurāṣṭra, (Kāthiāwār), Gurjara, Ābhīra, Koṅkaṇa, Draviḍa, Dakṣiṇāpatha, Avanti and Magadha should be avoided at śrāddhas. It will be noticed that putting the above two passages together, brāhmaṇas from half of modern India would have been ineligible for being invited at śrāddhas if these passages were literally followed.
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This was probably a counsel of perfection prompted by the false pride and prejudices of the authors of those works. The Śrāddhaviveka of Rudradhara (pp. 39-41) contains one of the longest lists of persons unfit to be invited at a śrāddha.