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the dark fortnight, all the days commencing with the tenth (and ending with that of the new moon), leaving only the fourteenth |
day out, are laudable days for the performance of the Sraddha. Other days of that fortnight are not so. Then, again, as the dark |
fortnight is better than the lighted one, so the afternoon of the day is better than the forenoon in the matter of the Sraddha.'" |
SECTION LXXXVIII |
"Yudhishthira said, 'O thou of great puissance, tell me what that object is which, if dedicated to the Pitris, becomes |
inexhaustible! What Havi, again, (if offered) lasts for all time? What, indeed, is that which (if presented) becomes eternal?'" |
"Bhishma said, 'Listen to me, O Yudhishthira, what those Havis are which persons conversant with the ritual of the Sraddha |
regard as suitable in view of the Sraddha and what the fruits are that attach to each. With sesame seeds and rice and barley and |
Masha and water and roots and fruits, if given at Sraddhas, the Pitris, O king, remain gratified for the period of a month.[398] |
Manu has said that if a Sraddha is performed with a copious measure of sesame, such Sraddha becomes inexhaustible. Of all |
kinds of food, sesame seeds are regarded as the best. With fishes offered at Sraddhas, the Pitris remain gratified for a period of |
two months. With mutton they remain gratified for three months and with the flesh of the hare for four. With the flesh of the |
goat, O king, they remain gratified for five months, with bacon for six months, and with the flesh of birds for seven. With |
venison obtained from those deer that are called Prishata, they remain gratified for eight months, and with that obtained from |
the Ruru for nine months, and with the meat of the Gavaya for ten months. With the meat of the buffalo their gratification lasts |
for eleven months. With beef presented at the Sraddha, their gratification, it is said, lasts for a full year. Payasa mixed with |
ghee is as much acceptable to the Pitris as beef. With the meat of the Vadhrinasa the gratification of the Pitris lasts for twelve |
years.[399] The flesh of the rhinoceros, offered to the Pitris on the anniversaries of the lunar days on which they died, becomes |
inexhaustible. The potherb called Kalasaka, the petals of the Kanchana flower, and meat of the goat also, thus offered, prove |
inexhaustible.[400] In this connection, O Yudhishthira, there are some verses, originally sung by the Pitris, that are sung (in the |
world). They were communicated to me in former days by Sanatkumara.--He that has taken birth in our race should give us |
Payasa mixed with ghee on the thirteenth day (of the dark fortnight), under the constellation Magha, during the Sun's |
southward course. One born in our race should, under the constellation Magha, as if in the observance of a vow, offer the meat |
of goat or the petals of the Kanchana flower. One should also offer us, with due rites, Payasa mixed with ghee, dedicating it on |
a spot covered by the shadow of an elephant.--Many sons should be coveted so that even one may go to Gaya (for performing |
the Sraddha of his ancestors), where stands the banian that is celebrated over all the worlds and that makes all offerings made |
under its branches inexhaustible.[401] Even a little of water, roots, fruits, meat, and rice, mixed with honey, if offered on the |
anniversary of the day of death becomes inexhaustible.'" |
SECTION LXXXIX |
"Bhishma continued, 'Listen to me, O Yudhishthira, as I tell thee what those optional Sraddhas are that should be performed |
under the different constellations and that were first spoken of by Yama unto king Sasavindu.[402] That man who always |
performs the Sraddha under the constellation Krittika is regarded as performing a sacrifice after establishing the sacred fire. |
Such a person, freed from fear, ascends to heaven with his children. He that is desirous of children should perform the Sraddha |
under the constellation Rohini, while he that is desirous of energy should do it under the constellation Mrigasiras. By |
performing the Sraddha under the constellation Ardra, a man becomes the doer of fierce deeds. A mortal, by performing the |
Sraddha under Punarvasu, makes such again by agriculture. The man that is desirous of growth and advancement should |
perform the Sraddha under Pushya. By doing it under the constellation Aslesha one begets heroic children. By doing it under |
the Maghas one attains to pre-eminence among kinsmen. By doing it under the prior Phalgunis, the doer of it becomes endued |
with good fortune. By doing the Sraddha under the later Phalgunis one attains to many children; while by performing it under |
Hasta, one attains to the fruition of one's wishes. By performing it under the constellation Chitra one obtains children endued |
with great beauty. By doing it under the constellation Swati, one makes much profit by trade. The man that desires children |
acquires the fruition of his wish by performing the Sraddha under the constellation Visakha. By doing it under Anuradha one |
becomes a king of kings.[403] By making offerings in honour of the Pitris under the constellation Jyeshtha with devotion and |
humility, one attains to sovereignty, O foremost one of Kuru's race. By doing the Sraddha under Mula one attains to health, and |
by doing it under the prior Ashadha, one acquires excellent fame. By performing it under the later Ashadha one succeeds in |
roving over the whole world, freed from every sorrow. By doing it under the constellation Abhijit one attains to high |
knowledge. By doing it under Sravana one, departing from this world, attains to a very high end. The man that performs the |
Sraddha under the constellation Dhanishtha becomes the ruler of a kingdom. By doing it under the constellation presided over |
by Varuna (viz., Satabhisha), one attains to success as a physician. By performing the Sraddha under the constellation of the |
prior Bhadrapada one acquires large property in goats and sheep; while by doing it under the later Bhadrapada one acquires |
thousands of kine. By performing the Sraddha under the constellation Revati one acquires much wealth in utensils of white |
brass and copper. By doing it under Aswini one acquires many steeds, while under Bharani one attains to longevity. Listening |
to these ordinances about the Sraddha, king Sasavindu acted accordingly, and succeeded in easily subjugating and ruling the |
whole earth.'" |
SECTION XC |
"Yudhishthira said, 'It behoves thee, O foremost one of Kuru's race, to tell me unto what kind of Brahmanas, O grandsire, |
should the offers made at Sraddhas be given away.' |
"Bhishma said, The Kshatriya who is conversant with the ordinances about gift should never examine Brahmanas (when |
making gifts unto them). In all acts, however, that relate to the worship of the deities and the Pitris, an examination has been |
said to be proper. The deities are worshipped on earth by men only when they are filled with devotion that comes from the |
deities themselves. Hence, one should, approaching them, make gifts unto all Brahmanas (without any examination of their |
merits), regarding such gifts as are made to the deities themselves. In Sraddhas, however, O monarch, the man of intelligence |
should examine the Brahmanas (to be employed for assisting the doers of the Sraddha in getting through the ritual and making |
gifts unto them of the offerings made to the Pitris). Such examination should concern itself with their birth and conduct and age |
and appearance and learning and nobility (or otherwise) of parentage. Amongst the Brahmanas there are some that pollute the |
line and some that sanctify it. Listen to me, O king, as I tell thee who those Brahmanas are that should be excluded from the |
line.[404] He that is full of guile, or he that is guilty of foeticide, or he that is ill of consumption, or he that keeps animals, of is |
destitute of Vedic study, or is a common servant of a village, or lives upon the interest of loans, or he that is a singer, or he that |
sells all articles, or he that is guilty of arson, or he that is a poisoner or he that is a pimp by profession, or he that sells Soma, or |
he that is a professor of palmistry, or he that is in the employ of the king, or he that is seller of oil, or he that is a cheat and false |
swearer, or he that has a quarrel with his father, or he that tolerates a paramour of his wife in his house, or he that has been |
cursed, or he that is a thief, or he that lives by some mechanical art, or he that puts on disguises, or he that is deceitful in his |
behaviour, or he that is hostile to those he calls his friends, or he that is an adulterer, or he that is a preceptor of Sudras, or he |
that has betaken himself to the profession of arms, or he that wanders with dogs (for hunting), or he that has been bit by a dog, |
or he that has wedded before his elder brothers, or he that seems to have undergone circumcision,[405] he that violates the bed |
of his preceptor, he that is an actor or mime, he that lives by setting up a deity and he that lives by calculating the conjunctions |
of stars and planets and asterisms[406], are regarded as fit to be excluded from the line. Persons conversant with the Vedas say |
that the offerings made at Sraddhas, if eaten by such Brahmanas, go to fill the stomachs of Rakshasas (instead of filling those |
of the Pitris), O, Yudhishthira. That person who having eaten at a Sraddha does not abstain that day from study of the Vedas or |
who has sexual congress that day with a Sudra woman, must know that his Pitris, in consequence of such acts of his, have to lie |
for a month on his dung. The offerings made at Sraddhas if presented to a Brahmana who sells Soma, become converted into |
human ordure; if presented to a Brahmana who is engaged in the practice of Medicine, they become converted into pus and |
blood; if presented to one who lives by setting up a deity, they fail to produce any fruit; if presented to one who lives upon the |
interest of loans they lead to infamy; if presented to one who is engaged in trade, they become productive of no fruits either |
here or hereafter. If presented to a Brahmana who is born of a widowed mother (by a second husband), they become as fruitless |
as libations poured on ashes[407]. They who present the Havya and Kavya (offered at Sraddhas) unto such Brahmanas as are |
divested of the duties ordained for them and of those rules of good conduct that persons of their order should observe, find such |
presents productive of no merits hereafter. That man of little intelligence who makes gifts of such articles unto such men |
knowing their dispositions, obliges, by such conduct, his Pitris to eat human ordure in the next world. Thou shouldst know that |
these wretches among Brahmanas deserve to be excluded from the line. Those Brahmanas also of little energy who are engaged |
in instructing Sudras are of the same class. A Brahmana that is blind stains sixty individual of the line; one that is destitute of |
virile power a hundred; while one that is afflicted with white leprosy stains as many as he looks upon, O king. Whatever |
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