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, or 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 tha