Chapter 168 - Kinds of Major Sins (mahāpātaka)

[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]

Puṣkara said:

1. The king should punish the men who do not perform atonement (for their own misdeeds). One should perform atonement (irrespective of the fact that the misdeed was done) with one’s wilful desire or not.

2. One should never eat (food) from intoxicated, angry and sick men. (One should not eat food) touched by great sinners [i.e., mahāpātaka] and that touched by a woman in her courses.

3-9. (One should) also (not take) food (prepared) for a group of persons, food from the courtezan, an usurer, a singer, a cursed person, an eunuch, a (woman) having a paramour in the house, a washerman, a noxious person, a panegyrist, a cheat, a false ascetic, a thief, one who has undergone a punishment, one who is born to an adulterine, one who is born to a widow, one who is controlled by a woman, one who sells scriptures, an actor, a weaver, and food from an ungrateful person. One should avoid food from the blacksmith, hunter, washerman of sarees, falsely renounced person, a harlot, an oilman, one who had ridden (on a horse etc.) and fallen and one’s enemies. So also (one should not eat food) from a brahmin, being not invited by that brahmin. So also a śūdra should not eat food from a brahmin even if invited. If one happens to eat unknowingly from the other among these, one has to fast for three days. After having eaten knowingly one should observe the kṛcchra^[1]. One who had eaten food from a Caṇḍāla and Śvapaca and the semen, feces and urine, should observe the cāndrāyaṇa.^[2]

10-11. One should observe taptakṛcchra after having eaten food within ten days of pollution, food intended for the dead or that is smelt by a cow or the remnant of that eaten by a śūdra or a dog and the food from a fallen person. (When the food has been taken) at the time of pollution one should observe kṛcchra. Whoever eats food from a person having pollution also becomes impure.

12. excellent brahmin who had drunk water from a well into which a five-nailed dead animal (had fallen) or containing feces, should observe fast for three days.

13-21. In all the cases the śūdra, vaiśya and bhūmipa (the ruling class) (would have fasting) one fourth, half and threefourth (of days prescribed for the brahmins). A brahmin who has partaken the urine and excreta of a bird, boar, mule, camel, jackal, monkey and crow should observe cāndrāyaṇa^[3]. One gets purified by (observing) taptakṛcchra^[4] after having eaten flesh, food (intended) for the dead, (flesh of) karaka (a species of bird) (and also after eating the flesh) of a carnivorous animal, boar, camel, jackal, monkey, crow, cow, man, horse (and) camel and after having eaten mushroom, the village cock as well as the flesh of an elephant. So also a brahmacārī having eaten at the āmaśrāddha^[5] and consumed honey or garlic or onion etc. get purified by (doing) prājāpatya^[6] etc. So also one should do cāndrāyaṇa^[7] after having eaten flesh made ready (cooked) by ṃmself. So also pelugavya^[8] and peyūṣa^[9] which cause excess of phlegm and vṛtā-kṛsarasaṃyāva^[10], pāyasa^[11], cakes, fried eatables made of flour, flesh of animal not prepared for a sacrifice, food intended for the gods, oblations and all (kinds of) milks except (those) of cows, she-buffaloes and goats are prohibited as well as their waters ten days old. The hare, porcupine, godhā (a kind of an alligator), rhinoceros and tortoise are (those among) the (animals having) five nails (whose flesh) could be eaten. The remaining ones are prohibited. One may eat fish such as the pāṭhīna (a kind of sheat-fish), rohita and lion-faced fish.

22-23. (Having eaten) all (eatables) made of barley and wheat and (all) transformations of milk, vāgaṣādgavacakra (?) and others, that which is oily and (the food) kept overnight, a brahmin should do the agnihotra^[12], kindle the fire and as desired observe cāndrāyaṇa^[13] for a month. The posture of vīrāsana^[14] is said to be conducive.

24-25. The killing of a brahmin, drinking of wine, stealing and copulating with preceptor’s wife are said to be great sins. The association with them, pleasure in untruth, miserliness in a king, speaking ill of the preceptor are equivalent to the killing of a brahmin.

26. Neglecting the Vedas, censuring the Vedas, bearing false witness, killing of a friend, eating forbidden food and clarified butter are the six equivalents to the drinking of wine.

27. The stealing of the entrusted such as a man, horse, silver, land, gems like diamond are remembered to be equivalent to the stealing of gold.

28. Cohabiting with consaṅguineous girls, (women) of low caste, wife etc. of the son of a friend are known to be equivalent to cohabiting with the wife of the preceptor.

29-40. Killing of a cow, doing a sacrifice for an outcaste, adultery, selling oneself, forsaking the preceptor, mother, and father as well as one’s vedic study, the fire-worship and the son, marrying before the marriage of one’s elder brother, getting one’s daughter married to a person whose elder brother is unmarried, conducting a sacrifice for them,seducing a girl, practising usury, breaking of a vow, selling a tank, garden, wife and son, becoming an outcaste by the non-performance of the religious rites, forsaking the relatives, teaching the servant taking instruction. from a servant, selling of things prohibited for sale, exercising control over all the mines, instituting a potent amulet, destroying herbs, living by means of a woman, disregarding one’s work, felling ofunwithered trees for fuel, taking many wives, associating with those who despise women, commencing some action for the benefit of one’s own self, eating of censured food, not invoking the sacrificial fires, indulging in stealing, not discharging the debts, studying of false scriptures, bad conduct, (doing) deeds harmful (to others), stealing grains, metal and cow, cohabiting woman fond of drinking, killing a woman, a śūdra, a vaiśya, or a kṣatriya and atheism are all minor sins. Causing injury to a brahmin, the act of smelling something that should not be smelt or the wine, deceitfulness, and cohabiting with men are known to be the acts to make one an outcaste. The killing of a dog, mule, camel, lion, goat, ewe, fish, snake and mongoose are known to be saṅkīrṇakaraṇa (mixed acts). Getting money from the defamed, doing trade, serving a śūdra, and speaking untruth are known to be apātrīkaraṇa (doing unworthy acts). The killing of insects, worms and birds, taking food followed by drinking wine, stealing fruits, fuel and flowers and cowardice are also defiling (acts).

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

A simple expiation of fasting etc.

[2]:

Fast regulated according to the phases of the moon.

[3]:

See note 2 on p. 471.

[4]:

Drinking water with milk and ghee once in three days for twelve days.

[5]:

An ancestral rite in which uncooked food is offered.

[6]:

A kind of fast for 12 days, eating food in the morning for the first three days, in the evening for the next three days, only if given as alms the next three days and a plenary fast the rest of the days.

[7]:

See note 2 on p. 471 above.

[8]:

The exact meaning is not known.

[9]:

The milk of the cow within seven days after calving.

[10]:

Food consisting of wheat flour, rice and sesamum not prepared for any religious purpose.

[11]:

Rice boiled with milk or sugar.

[12]:

A daily oblation to the fire.

[13]:

See note 2 on p. 471.

[14]:

Posture of squatting on the thighs, the lower leg being crossed over each other.