13.090
Yudhishthira said.
O grandfather, to what kinds of Brāhmaṇas should the śrāddha offering be made? O tiger among the Kurus, you ought to explain that to me. (13-90-1)
Bhīṣma said;
A kṣatriya who knows the law of giving should not test brāhmaṇas. But in divine acts and ancestral rites, testing is said to be proper. (13-90-2)
Deities worship here by divine splendor indeed; therefore, having approached, a man should cause gifts to be given to all the gods. (13-90-3)
O great king, at the śrāddha, the wise should choose brāhmaṇas after examining their family, character, age, qualities, learning, and noble birth. (13-90-4)
Among these, some are defilers of the offerings; others are purifiers of the offerings. As for those unfit for offerings, O king, I will now declare them—listen.
A gambler, killer of an embryo, person afflicted with consumption, herdsman, deformed person, village messenger, marriage-broker, singer, and seller of everything. (13-90-6)
A house-burner, poisoner, one who eats from the pot, a seller of soma, a seafarer, royal servant, oilman, and falsifier. (13-90-7)
One who quarrels with his father, whose wife has a paramour in the house, who is cursed, who is a thief, or who earns his livelihood by craft. (13-90-8)
A sacrificial officiant, an informer, a betrayer of friends, an adulterer, a teacher of the irreligious, and one with a hump on the back are all (to be regarded) likewise. (13-90-9)
He who wanders with dogs, or who has been bitten by a dog; an outcaste, one with diseased skin, one who approaches his teacher's bed; a minstrel, a shrine-attendant, and one who lives by astrology—these (are excluded) (13-90-10)
One should indeed know these as unworthy participants, the lowest among the twice-born: those of little understanding who instruct the Śūdras. (13-90-11)
Sixty one-eyed men, a hundred eunuchs, and a leprous woman, as long as they are present in a row (for eating), so long the king causes pollution. (13-90-12)
One who eats with a covered head, or eats facing south, or eats wearing footwear—know all such acts as demonic. (13-90-13)
Brahmā assigned as the share of the lord of the Asuras everything that was given with envy or without faith. (13-90-14)
Dogs and those who pollute ritual rows should not look on at all. Therefore, after surrounding (with people), one should give and sprinkle sesame seeds. (13-90-15)
When sesame is offered, flesh-eating beings and groups subject to wrath, along with demons and piśācas, plunder that offering. (13-90-16)
As long as an unworthy person (apaṅktya) remains in the row of eaters, so long does he cause the giver, that foolish one, to fall away from the religious fruit. (13-90-17)
But these, O best of the Bharatas, are to be known as purifiers of the assembly; those twice-born, I will declare them to you — examine them here. (13-90-18)
Brāhmaṇas who have undertaken the vow of Vedic study—indeed, all of them—are worthy. But now I shall declare those entitled to sit in the śrāddha row; they are to be regarded as purifiers of the śrāddha assembly. (13-90-19)
He is the knower of the three Nachiketas fires, the five fires, the three Suparṇas, and the six limbs; one who continues giving offerings to Brahman, singer of Chandas metres, and singer of the most excellent Sāman. (13-90-20)
A brāhmaṇa who is obedient to his mother and father, versed in the Veda through ten generations, who approaches his lawful wives at the proper times, and who has completed the vow and Vedic study, indeed purifies the dining company. (13-90-21)
He who is the reciter of the Atharvaśiras, a celibate student practicing self-restraint, truthful, virtuous, and devoted to his own duties (13-90-22)
And those who, in sacred pilgrimage sites, become wearied by ablutions, and who in the rituals accompanied by mantras undergo the concluding ceremonial bath, are purified. (13-90-23)
Those who are free from anger, steadfast, forbearing, self-controlled, who have mastered their senses, and are well-wishers of all beings—these are the people one should invite to śrāddha ceremonies. Whatever is given to them becomes imperishable, for they indeed purify the assembly. (13-90-24)
O great king, these others are to be known as purifiers of the ritual company: ascetics, knowers of the law of liberation, yogins, and those whose vows are well-observed. (13-90-25)
Those who are devoted to making the twice-born best hear the itihāsa (history), those who are versed in commentaries, some, and those who are engaged in grammar; (13-90-26)
The person who studies the Purāṇas and the Dharmaśāstras, and, having studied them properly in accordance with the law, acts accordingly, his actions are correctly performed. (13-90-27)
Born and educated at the preceptor’s house, speaking truth, liberal giver of thousands, he was foremost in all the Vedas and in all recitations and teachings. (13-90-28)
As long as these observe the row, they purify to that extent. Therefore, because of purifying the row, the purifier-of-the-row is so called. (13-90-29)
But, starting from one and a half plus a third of a krośa, it is said that only one (person) should conduct the purification. This is regarded by those learned in Brahman as the proper succession concerning gifts to Brāhmaṇas. (13-90-30)
If someone who is neither a priest nor a teacher takes a seat at the front without permission from the priests and eats with the group, he incurs sin. (13-90-31)
O king, if a knower of the Veda is free from all group-related defects and is not fallen, he alone is the purifier of the group. (13-90-32)
Therefore, one should diligently consult the twice-born who are self-controlled, engaged in their own duties, born in good families, and well-versed in the scriptures, after properly examining them. (13-90-33)
He whose śrāddha offerings and rituals are led by friendship does not please the ancestors and gods, and he does not attain heaven. (13-90-34)
He who forms attachments at the śrāddha does not go by the divine path. Rather, even if freed from bondage, the friend of the śrāddha falls from the heavenly world. (13-90-35)
Therefore, one performing śrāddha should not honor a friend, but should give wealth gathered for distribution to friends. The one whom one considers neither as friend nor enemy, that neutral person should be fed at the offering to gods and ancestors. (13-90-36)
Just as a seed sown in barren land does not sprout, and the sower does not obtain its fruit, so a śrāddha offering consumed by the unworthy yields no fruit, either in this world or the next. (13-90-37)
A Brahmin who does not study is extinguished like a fire of dry grass; one should not give the śrāddha offering to him, for a sacrifice is never made into ashes. (13-90-38)
The offering called sambhojanī, which is a piśāca-offering, does not reach the gods nor the ancestors. Instead, she wanders here with her merit exhausted, just like a cow whose calf is lost, straying into another cowshed. (13-90-39)
Just as offering clarified butter into an extinguished fire does not reach the gods or ancestors, so also gifts given during dancing and singing, and a dakṣiṇā appointed by one who does not chant Ṛc hymns, do not reach their intended recipients. (13-90-40)
This gift, which is given to one not reciting the sacred texts, destroys both (the giver and recipient), and neither enjoys it; indeed, such a gift is blameworthy and brings misfortune, causing the souls of those people to fall from the path of the gods. (13-90-41)
O Yudhiṣṭhira, the gods recognize as brāhmaṇas those who are firmly established, know all forms of dharma, and always follow the customs of the ṛṣis. (13-90-42)
O Bhārata, sages established in self-study, knowledge, austerity, and action are to be understood as such. (13-90-43)
O Bhārata, poetic compositions should be entrusted to those firmly established in knowledge. Among them, the brāhmaṇas who do not criticize are indeed the best. (13-90-44)
But those who speak ill in gossip should not be fed at śrāddha-rites. Reviled brāhmaṇas, O King, would destroy the family for three generations. (13-90-45)
O king, it is said by the Vaikhānasa sages that one should carefully examine, even from a distance, the Brahmins accomplished in the Vedas, and offer the śrāddha among them—whether they are dear or disliked. (13-90-46)
O Bhārata, if a man should feed thousands upon thousands of those unversed in the ṛc (Vedas), a single satisfied knower of mantras surpasses them all. (13-90-47)
