History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.325

v7.c95.325

Modifications of this doctrine were early introduced. The Gaut.²⁵⁷⁹ Dh. S provides that the king should guard all the *varnas* and *āśramas* according to Śāstra and if they swerve from their duties he should make them follow their duties, since he gets a share of the dharma (merit) observed by them. Manu provides (VIII. 304-305, 308) that the king who protects his subjects secures the sixth part of the (spiritual) merit of all (his subjects), but if he does not guard them he also shares in the sixth part of their *adharma* (sin); the king who protects well is entitled to the sixth part of the merit of the Veda study, the sacrifices, the gifts, and of the worship of gods done by all subjects; that king who takes as his one-sixth part of the crops and other products, but fails to guard the subjects is declared (by sages) as receiving all the sins of all his subjects'. Manu says elsewhere (in IX. 301) that the king is the Yuga, that his actions may bring in Kṛta or any of the other Yugas. Kālidāsa in Śākuntala echoes this idea.²⁵⁸⁰ Manu (in VIII. 316) provides that when a thief comes to a king, confesses his guilt and asks the king to punish him with a heavy staff or a sharp weapon and the king either punishes him or lets him off, the thief is freed from (the effects of) the sin, but the king incurs the guilt of the thief if he does not punish him. To the same effect is Vasiṣṭha 19. 46 and 20. 41. It was stated by Manu (III. 100) that all the merit of even a man who lives a plain life by subsisting on grains left in the field after the crops are garnered and who performs *homa* in the five fires (to be kept by an householder) is taken away by a brāhmaṇa guest who stays unhonoured by him. Śāntiparva, Viṣṇu Dh. S. and several Purāṇas provide that²⁵⁸¹ when a guest, being disappointed (in getting food), turns away from the house of a person, the guest goes away taking all the merit of the person and transfers to him all his own misdeeds. This was probably not meant to be taken literally. It is only an arthavāda (in the language of the Mīmāṁsā) and merely exhorts a householder to honour a guest properly. The exhortation addressed by the judge to a witness before the latter began to depose contains in Yāj. the following verse²⁵⁸²: 'whatever good deeds you performed in hundreds of existences, all that will go to that party whose defeat you will bring about by your false evidence.' The Mit. and Aparārka both say that this is meant only to frighten and quote a verse of Nārāda (ṛnādāna 200) in support 'he (the judge) should frighten them (from telling lies) by citing ancient dharma-āstra texts, by recounting the greatness of truth and by censuring falsehood.' Manu (VIII. 90), however, makes the exhortation run as follows 'Whatever good deeds you performed from your birth, the merit of all of them would go to dogs if you will depose falsely'. Manu XII. 81 says²⁵⁸³ 'with whatever disposition of mind (either *sāttvika* or *rājasa* or *tāmasa*) a man does an act he reaps the fruits thereof (in a future life) in a body endowed with the same character.'