Manusmriti: The Laws of Manu

141. A gift (of food) by twice-born men, consumed with (friends and relatives), is said to be offered to the Pisakas; it remains in this (world) alone like a blind cow in one stable.

142. As a husbandman reaps no harvest when he has sown the seed in barren soil, even so the giver of sacrificial food gains no reward if he presented it to a man unacquainted with the Rikas.

143. But a present made in accordance with the rules to a learned man, makes the giver and the recipient partakers of rewards both in this (life) and after death.

144. (If no learned Brahmana be at hand), he may rather honour a (virtuous) friend than an enemy, though the latter may be qualified (by learning and so forth); for sacrificial food, eaten by a foe, bears no reward after death.

145. Let him (take) pains (to) feed at a Sraddha an adherent of the Rig-veda who has studied one entire (recension of that) Veda, or a follower of the Yagurveda who has finished one Sakha, or a singer of Samans who (likewise) has completed (the study of an entire recension).

146. If one of these three dines, duly honoured, at a funeral sacrifice, the ancestors of him (who gives the feast), as far as the seventh person, will be satisfied for a very long time.

147. This is the chief rule (to be followed) in offering sacrifices to the gods and manes; know that the virtuous always ob- serve the following subsidiary rule.

148. One may also entertain (on such occasions) one's maternal grandfather, a maternal uncle, a sister's son, a father-in-law, one's teacher, a daughter's son, a daughter's husband, a cognate kinsman, one's own officiating priest or a man for whom one offers sacrifices.

149. For a rite sacred to the gods, he who knows the law will not make (too close) inquiries regarding an (invited) Brahmana; but when one performs a ceremony in honour of the manes, one must carefully examine (the qualities and parent- age of the guest).

150. Manu has declared that those Brahmanas who are thieves, outcasts, eunuchs, or atheists are unworthy (to partake) of oblations to the gods and manes.

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