t
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 offerings made at
Sraddhas are eaten by one with his head wrapped round with a cloth,
whatever is eaten by one with face southwards, and whatever is eaten with
shoes or sandals on all goes to gratify the Asuras. Whatever, again, is
given with malice, and whatever is given without reverence, have been
ordained by Brahmana himself as the portion of the prince of Asuras
(viz., Vali). Dogs, and such Brahmanas as are polluters of lines, should
not be allowed to cast their eyes upon the offerings made at Sraddhas.
For this reason, Sraddhas should be performed in a spot that is prop