or
who having made a gift takes it back, has to pass a long time, in great
misery in consequence of being tied with the noose of Varuna at the
command of Death. Those men have never to go to Yama who honour and
worship those foremost of Brahmanas that pour libations every day on
their domestic fire, that are always engaged in the performance of
sacrifices, that have scanty means of livelihood, and that receive with
hospitality every guest seeking shelter in their abodes. The king, O
Purandara, should free himself from the debt he owes to the Brahmanas and
protect the helpless and the weak belonging to the other orders. The king
should never resume, O chief of the deities, earth that has been given
away by another unto a Brahmana, O ruler of the celestials, that is
destitute of the means of life.[332] The tears that would fall from the
eyes of such cheerless and destitute Brahmanas in consequence of their
lands being taken back are capable of destroying the ancestors and
descendants to the third generation of the resumer. That man who succeeds
by his endeavours in re-establishing a king driven away from his kingdom,
obtains residence in heaven and is much honoured by the denizens thereof.
That king who succeeds in making gifts of earth with such crops standing
thereon as sugar-cane or barley or wheat, or with kine and horses and
other draft cattle,--earth that has been won with the might of the
giver's arms,--that has mineral wealth in its bowels and that is covered
with every kind of wealth of the surface, wins inexhaustible regions of
felicity in the next world, and such a king it is that is said to perform
the earth-sacrifice. That king who makes a gift of earth becomes washed
of every sin and is, therefore, pure and approved of the righteous. In
this world he is highly honoured and applauded by all righteous men. The
merit that attaches to a gift of earth increases every time the earth
given away bears crops for the benefit of the owner, even as a drop of
oil, falling upon water, is seen to extend on every side, and cover the
watery surface. Those heroic kings and ornaments of assemblies who cast
off their lives in battle with faces towards the foe, attain, O Sakra, to
the region of Brahman. Beautiful damsels skilled in music and dancing and
adorned with garlands of celestial flowers, approach, O chief of the
deities, the giver of earth as he comes to heaven departing from the
earth. That king who makes gifts of earth