[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Vedic Index of Names and Subjects](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912) › v2.c4.s2.354 # Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s2.354 Vedic Index of Names and Subjects v2.c4.s2.354 - **Language:** English ### [v2.c4.s2.354](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s2.354) 2. Gifts to Brahmins.—The Dānastuti (‘Praise of gifts’) is a recognized feature of the Rigveda, and the greed of the poets for Dakṣiṇās, or sacrificial fees, is notorious. Vedic texts²² themselves recognize that the literature thence resulting (Nārā- śamsī) was often false to please the donors. It was, however, a rule²³ that Brahmins should not accept what had been refused by others; this indicates a keen sense of the danger of cheapening their wares. So exclusively theirs was the right to receive gifts that the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa²⁴ has to explain how Taranta and Purumiḷha became able to accept gifts by composing a Rigvedic hymn.²⁵ The exaggerations in the celebration of the gifts bestowed on the priests has the curious result of giving us a series of numerals of some interest (Daśan). In some passages²⁶ certain gifts—those of a horse or sheep—are forbidden, but this rule was not, it is clear, generally observed. - [Previous: v2.c4.s2.353](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s2.353) - [Next: v2.c4.s2.355](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s2.355) - [Up: v2.c4.s2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s2) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s2.354](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.macdonell-keith-1912.v2.c4.s2.354) · Pramāṇa