Chapter 51

Vishnu Smriti 51

A surāpa (a liquor-drinker), excluded from all rites, shall eat grain-husks for a year. // Vi_51.1 //

For eating any of the defiling liquors, he shall perform the cāndrāyaṇa penance. // Vi_51.2 //

And for eating garlic, onions, leeks, anything with a similar smell, pork, village chicken, monkey, or beef. // Vi_51.3 //

In all these cases, for twice-born men, after the penance, he shall perform the initiation ceremony again. // Vi_51.4 //

The shaving of the head, the girdle, the staff, the begging of alms, and the vows are to be omitted in the re-initiation ceremony. // Vi_51.5 //

For eating the meat of five-toed animals, with the exception of the hare, porcupine, iguana, rhinoceros, and tortoise, he shall fast for seven nights. // Vi_51.6 //

Having eaten food from a corporation, a courtesan, a thief, or a singer, he shall subsist on milk for seven nights. // Vi_51.7 //

And food from a carpenter or a leather-worker. // Vi_51.8 //

And from a usurer, a miser, one initiated for a sacrifice, one in fetters, an accused person, or a eunuch. // Vi_51.9 //

And from an unchaste woman, a hypocrite, a physician, a cruel man, a sick person, or one who eats leftovers. // Vi_51.10 //

And from a woman without a protector, a goldsmith, a co-wife, or a fallen person. // Vi_51.11 //

And from a slanderer, a liar, one who lives by his wife's earnings, or a seller of juices. // Vi_51.12 //

And from an actor, a weaver, an ungrateful person, or a washerman. // Vi_51.13 //

And from an artisan, a Niṣāda, a stage-player, a bamboo-worker, or a seller of weapons. // Vi_51.14 //

And from one who lives by dogs, a liquor-seller, an oil-presser, or a clothes-washer. // Vi_51.15 //

And from the house of a menstruating woman or of one living with a paramour. // Vi_51.16 //

Food looked upon by one who has killed an embryo, food touched by a menstruating woman, pecked by a bird, touched by a dog, or smelled by a cow. // Vi_51.17 //

Food intentionally touched by the foot, or sneezed upon. // Vi_51.18 //

And food of a drunkard, an angry person, or a sick person. // Vi_51.19 //

And food not offered to the gods, and meat eaten for no sacred purpose. // Vi_51.20 //

For eating any fish meat, except for the Pāṭhīna, Rohita, Rājīva, Siṃhatuṇḍa, and Śakula, he shall fast for three nights. // Vi_51.21 //

And for eating the meat of any aquatic animal. // Vi_51.22 //

Having drunk water from a liquor-jar, he shall drink milk boiled with Śaṅkhapuṣpī flowers for seven nights. // Vi_51.23 //

And from a wine-jar, for five nights. // Vi_51.24 //

A Soma-drinker, having smelled the scent of a liquor-drinker, shall submerge himself in water, mutter the Aghamarṣaṇa prayer three times, and perform the drinking of clarified butter. // Vi_51.25 //

For eating the meat of a donkey, camel, or crow, he shall perform the cāndrāyaṇa penance. // Vi_51.26 //

And for unknowingly eating dry meat from a slaughterhouse. // Vi_51.27 //

For eating the meat of carnivorous wild animals or birds, the taptakṛcchra penance. // Vi_51.28 //

For eating a sparrow, a plover, a ruddy goose, a swan, a rope-bird, a crane, a cuckoo, a wagtail, a parrot, a mynah, a heron, a crane, a cuckoo, or a khañjarīṭa, he shall fast for three nights. // Vi_51.29 //

And for eating an animal with uncloven hoofs or one with two rows of teeth. // Vi_51.30 //

For eating the meat of any bird, except for the partridge, quail, francolin, and peacock, for a day and a night. // Vi_51.31 //

For eating an insect, he shall drink a decoction of Brahmasuvarcalā for one day. // Vi_51.32 //

And for eating the meat of dogs. // Vi_51.33 //

For eating mushrooms or fungi, the sāṃtapana penance. // Vi_51.34 //

Having eaten stale food, except for preparations of barley, wheat, or milk, food fried in oil, sour food, or candied preparations, he shall fast. // Vi_51.35 //

And the red-colored saps of trees that grow on impure ground or are produced by cutting. // Vi_51.36 //

And lotus-roots, meat cooked for no sacred purpose, mixed-grain dishes, milk-rice, cakes, fried cakes, food for the gods, and oblations. // Vi_51.37 //

And all milks, except for that of a cow, goat, or buffalo. // Vi_51.38 //

And even those, for ten days after giving birth. // Vi_51.39 //

And the milk of a cow whose calf has died, one that is in heat, or one that gives milk spontaneously. // Vi_51.40 //

And one that eats impure things. // Vi_51.41 //

And all sour things, except for curd. // Vi_51.42 //

A brahmacārī who eats at a śrāddha shall fast for three nights. // Vi_51.43 //

And he shall remain in water for one day. // Vi_51.44 //

For eating honey or meat, the prājāpatya penance. // Vi_51.45 //

For eating the leftovers of a cat, crow, ichneumon, or mouse, he shall drink a decoction of Brahmasuvarcalā. // Vi_51.46 //

For eating the leftovers of a dog, having fasted for one day, he shall drink pañcagavya. // Vi_51.47 //

For eating the excrement or urine of a five-toed animal, for seven nights. // Vi_51.48 //

For eating at an uncooked-śrāddha, he shall subsist on milk for three nights. // Vi_51.49 //

A Brāhmaṇa who eats the leftovers of a Śūdra, for seven nights. // Vi_51.50 //

The leftovers of a Vaiśya, for five nights. // Vi_51.51 //

The leftovers of a Rājanya, for three nights. // Vi_51.52 //

But for the leftovers of a Brāhmaṇa, for one day. // Vi_51.53 //

A Rājanya who eats the leftovers of a Śūdra, for five nights. // Vi_51.54 //

Who eats the leftovers of a Vaiśya, for three nights. // Vi_51.55 //

And a Vaiśya who eats the leftovers of a Śūdra. // Vi_51.56 //

Having eaten the food of a Caṇḍāla, he shall fast for three nights. // Vi_51.57 //

Having eaten cooked food, the parāka penance. // Vi_51.58 //

A Brāhmaṇa shall never eat animals not consecrated with mantras; / But he may eat those consecrated with mantras, following the eternal rule. || Vi_51.59 ||

For as many hairs as the animal has, so many times does the slayer of an animal for no sacred purpose / Suffer a violent death in the next world and in this one, without redemption. || Vi_51.60 ||

Animals were created for the sake of sacrifice by the Self-existent himself; / Sacrifice is for the prosperity of all; therefore, killing in a sacrifice is not killing. || Vi_51.61 ||

The sin of a hunter who seeks wealth is not as great / As that of one who eats meat for no sacred purpose in the next world. || Vi_51.62 ||

Herbs, animals, trees, creeping things, and birds, / Having met their death for the sake of sacrifice, attain higher states again. || Vi_51.63 ||

At a madhuparka (a reception for a guest), at a sacrifice, and at a rite for the ancestors and gods, / Only here may animals be harmed, and nowhere else. || Vi_51.64 ||

A twice-born man who knows the true meaning of the Veda, by harming animals for the sake of sacrifice, / Leads both himself and the animals to the highest state. || Vi_51.65 ||

A self-controlled twice-born man, whether living in a house, with a teacher, or in the forest, / Shall not perform violence not prescribed by the Veda, even in distress. || Vi_51.66 ||

The violence which is prescribed by the Veda for this world of moving and unmoving things, / One should know that to be non-violence, for dharma has sprung from the Veda. || Vi_51.67 ||

He who harms harmless beings out of a desire for his own pleasure, / He finds no happiness anywhere, neither while living nor when dead. || Vi_51.68 ||

He who does not wish to cause bondage, death, or pain to living beings, / He, desiring the welfare of all, enjoys supreme happiness. || Vi_51.69 ||

What he thinks, what he does, and in what he takes delight, / That he obtains without effort, he who harms nothing. || Vi_51.70 ||

Without having done violence to living beings, meat is nowhere produced; / And the killing of a living being is not conducive to heaven; therefore, one should avoid meat. || Vi_51.71 ||

Having considered the origin of meat and the bondage and slaughter of embodied beings, / One should turn away from the eating of all meat. || Vi_51.72 ||

He who does not eat meat like a demon, having abandoned the rule, / He attains popularity in the world and is not afflicted by diseases. || Vi_51.73 ||

The one who permits, the one who cuts up, the one who kills, the buyer and the seller, / The one who prepares, the one who serves, and the one who eats—these are the slayers. || Vi_51.74 ||

He who wishes to increase his own flesh with the flesh of another, / Without having honored his ancestors and the gods, there is no one more unrighteous than he. || Vi_51.75 ||

He who performs a horse-sacrifice every year for a hundred years, / And he who does not eat meat—the fruit of their merit is equal. || Vi_51.76 ||

By eating divine fruits and roots, and by the food of sages, / One does not obtain that fruit which is obtained by the avoidance of meat. || Vi_51.77 ||

'Me (mām) he (sa) will devour in the next world, whose flesh (māṃsam) I eat here'— / This, the wise declare, is the true nature of flesh (māṃsa).[^8] || Vi_51.78 ||