History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.420

v7.c93.420

Even all actions done by great men cannot be called *sadācāra*, according to Kumārila, if they can be attributed to greed or some such base motive and should not be looked upon as Dharma. Gautama,²⁰⁹⁰ Āp. Dh. S. and the Bhāgavata-purāṇa remark that even great men were guilty of violations of Dharma and defiant excesses, that those great men incurred no sin (got over the effects of such violations) on account of their being endowed with eminent *tapas* (spiritual merit due to austerities) but that others of later ages following their examples and treading the same path would sink (into hell). Kumārila cites twelve such instances of lapses, explains them away or says they were due to wrath or other passions and were not intended by the authors (of those acts) as dharma and are not looked upon as śiṣṭācāra by modern men. The twelve instances are: Prajāpati who became enamoured of his own daughter (Uṣas, explains Kumārila), Indra is described as the *jāra* (paramour) of Ahalyā (night, according to Kumārila's explanation); Vasiṣṭha through grief for the slaughter of his hundred sons by a demon contemplated suicide; Viśvāmitra who became officiating priest to Triśaṅku that had become a cāṇḍāla through a curse; Nahuṣa who, when he occupied the position of Indra, made approaches to Śacī, wife of Indra and was transformed into an *ajagara* (huge reptile), Purūravas, when separated from Urvaśī, thought of dying (by hanging &c.); Kṛṣṇa-dvaipāyana who was *naiṣṭhika* (perpetual) brahmacārin raised sons on the widows of his uterine brother, Vicitravīrya; Bhīṣma, though unmarried, performed Aśvamedha sacrifices; Dhṛtarāṣṭra, though congenitally blind, performed sacrifices which blind men are not authorised to do (compare Jai. VI. I. 42); five Pāṇḍavas marrying one Draupadī; Yudhiṣṭhira who prevaricated and thereby caused the death of Droṇa, his brāhmaṇa guru; Kṛṣṇa and Arjuna are described in the Mahābhārata as drunk with wine ('ubhau madhvāsavakṣībau dṛṣṭau me Keśavārjunau' in Udyogaparva 59. 5) and married their maternal uncle's daughters; Rāma performed Aśvamedha by associating a golden image of Sītā with him.