By J. Duncan M. Derrett, London
A curious provision of the dharmaiästra is called avikreyätii, 'things that should not be sold (by Brahmins even in a time of distress)'. A Brahmin who, even in äpad, sells any of the items which dharmasästra texts list loses his caste, unless he is ad¬
mitted to an appropriate penance; and beyond that we are told that the king should enforce this, as other rules of varnäsrama-dharma. Apanya-vikraya , 'the sale of ob¬
jects which should not be sold', is a breach of Brahmin ethics. Apad itself is a big
fiction. The course of Indian social history shows that it was an ancient device to
harmonise ideal behaviour, the ideal 'legitimation' of the varna system, with the
evident unashamed variety of occupation which (as we know from Buddhist texts)
Brahmins, and others, are found to pursue. Here we have a fiction upon a fiction.
In apad, such as war, famine, plague, a Brahmin may occupy himself as a ruler, or,
failing that, as a merchant (vaisya): but though he sells like a merchant he must not sell any of the objectionable objects. When the list comes to be examined it is very heteroclite. And no explanation for this curiosity has been seriously offered.
From the Sämavidhäna-brähmana right through to puränas the prohibition is to
be found. Abbe' Dubois found the proposition alive in Mysore, and since the list he
gives agrees with surviving texts it is possible that he found the prohibition alive at least in principle (Dubois studied normative texts as well as life). The extreme vita¬
lity of the subject is shown by the equally curious fact that no two texts agree,
either in the total of objects or the order in which they are listed, and no principle can be deduced, no generalisation derived, from any list. Nor is any explanation offered for the principle.
An example of the material is Manu X. 85-94, which may be translated as
follows: 'But there is this, that one who renounces his strict dharma under stress of livelihood may sell, in order to increase his means, commodities dealt in by Vaisyas,
making the necessary exceptions. He must avoid all flavours, prepared food and
sesamum, stones and salt, cattle and domesticated ones. All dyed cloth, made of
hemp, flax, and antelope skins, even though they are not dyed, fruit, roots, and
herbs. Water, weapons, poison, meat, soma, and all perfumes, milk, corrosive
substances, curds, ghee, oil, honey, molasses, and kusa grass. All anunals of the
forest, those with fangs, and birds, intoxicating drink, indigo, lac, and also ah one-
hoofed beasts. The farmer who has grown it himself may at pleasure seh pure
sesamum for the sake of dharma, provided it has not been kept long. If he does any
other thing with sesamum except food, anointing and gifts, he wül become a worm
*The text of this rather lengthy paper, together with a summary of the very interesting and helpful discussion whieh it provoked, within the session and later, has appeared in the J. R. A. S.
1980, part 2.
242 J.D.M. Derrett,
and sink, along with his ancestors, into the dung of dogs. At once the Brahmin
fahs through flesh, lac, and salt; in three days he becomes a Südra if he sells mhk.
By intentionally selling in this world other commodities the Brahmin enters, after
seven nights, the status of the Vaisya. Flavours should be exchanged for flavours,
but not salt for sesamum, prepared food for unprepared, sesamum for corn to an
equal amount.'
It is astounding that what cannot be sold may sometimes be exchanged, irrespec¬
tive of value. Furthermore the prohibition relates only to sale. A Brahmin may buy
most of the items, receive them as a gift, and certainly give them away! Further
light can be obtained from an equally curious passage, in Narada (II. 64—65 =
Näradiya-manu-samhitä 60—61) which may be rendered: 'But the Brahmin may
sell dry wood and hay, excepting perfume-bearing objects, eraA^ä-grass, ratan, tufts of grass (or cotton from the silk-cotton tree), roots, and fcuxa-grass (or, chafO: And (he may sell) split bamboo which has split by itself, and, amongst fruits, the badara
and the inguda, rope, thread made of cotton (or a cotton garment and thread),
which has, however, remained free from modification (as by dyeing).'
Since the list is so long, and differs as between texts of various ages, adding up
eventually to some 250 mentions, it is impossible to believe that the whole thmg is
entirely imaginary: yet it could have an origin which is pre-historic, in which case it is not impossible that the rationale(s) became blurred, or even lost. We are there¬
fore looking into something of much greater age than historical Hindu society. One
is struck at once by the fact that a great many of the objects now belong to the
trade of communities now classed as Scheduled Castes (Harijans). But the texts
would be futhe if, without them. Brahmins, occupying themselves as Vaisyas
(dvijas), did not once have the opportunity to deal in those objectionable items.
By coincidence a long list of objectionable objects is found in mediaeval Jaina
texts (whose material is of indeterminate age) under a similar heading, namely
trades. By far the majority of the 250 1 have found do indeed appear in both lists.
Is there an explanation to be found here? I submit that there is, and can move from
there to an attempt at a reconstruction of the ideas or social realities which may
he behind the coincidence.
The Jaina material is about forbidden trades. In general the Jaina monk will not
accept food from a layman engaged in those trades, and those trades are eschewed
by a Jaina layman under a vow. It is extremely likely that when the Jaina religion
was young these taboos applied to all the adherents of the izim-dharma. R. Wh-
liams in his Jaina Yoga (London, 1963) lists and explains the fifteen forbidden
trades, and a logic is certainly discernible behind them. The whole thing is a ques¬
tion of ahirnsa. JTvas are to be found in a clod of soil, in the roots of grasses, in canes and bamboos, in fruit. In some, like figs, jTvas are particularly numerous; in
the fresh and the green vegetable there are more than in dry. If one sells a thing
which was not acquired without damage to jTvas, for example any natural product
distorted or spohed by art, e.g. dyeing, one encourages practices harmful to jTvas.
This can occur in very many ways, and scrupulosity searches this out. Instead of a
helpful generalisation the texts, as is understandable with an authentic ancient civi¬
lization, content themselves with apparently senseless lists.
Category 1 (ahgära- karman) embraces the 'Hindu' items lead, copper, iron, tin;
mining. Category 2 (vana-karman) includes roots, especially ginger, herbs, flowers, plants, vegetables, juices, split bamboo, corn stalks, perfumes (e.g. sandal) (crushing
and distilling are obviously aimed at but see Category 11 below). Category 3
{kakata-karman): carts, draught oxen: notice that Manu 111. 64 mentions cows,
horses, and carriages. Category 5 {sphota-karman) includes stones, jewels, salt.
Category 6 (danta-vänijya) includes what endangers whd-hfe: conch-shells, yak-
hairs, skins of antelopes, down of geese, skins, forest-animals, bones, shells, rhino- cerus horn, perfumes, corals. Category 7 {läksä-vänijya): lac, indigo, dyes, and dyed cloth. Category 8 (rasa-vänijya): liquor, juices, flavourings, honey, buttermilk, meat, mhk, curds, ghee, sugar, sUk, bees' wax, glues. Category 9 (kesa-vänijya):
human beings, hair, bones, blankets, wool, goats, sheep, bulls, cows, horses. Catego¬
ry 10 (yisa-vänijya) includes poisons, weapons, corrosive acids. Category 11 (yantra-
pMana): oh cake, oh, sesamum, cakes, prepared food, peppers. Category 14: 'drying
up of waters' includes water as an object of sale. Category 15 (asati-posana): ani¬
mals with fangs, birds (possibly), elephants, horses, pigs and bulls (possibly).
The rationale would be clear now. At some stage man's harmony with nature
was taken to a logical conclusion. Everything that would harm jfvas, from as large as
an elephant to as small as invisible organisms in curds, including weevUs living in
heaps of grain, must be avoided, especially at the level of encouragement. One must not sell poisons not only because they may be used for poisoning hving creatures, but also because they have themselves been extracted at the detriment of jTvas. The items sesamum, soma, oil, indigo, etc., particularly illustrate this. This fanatical,
not to say neurotic, concern with man's harmony with nature is characteristic of
Jainism. But from many of the items we can be sure that it is also characteristic of a
stage of life when Hindus (or their counterparts) had not left the forest. The
gremium of the whole scheme is a forest-culture. On the other hand it is clear that this is a way of perfection. The Jaina layman must do his best to achieve it. Some¬
times dharma may be achieved in breach of such rules. And there are cases where
the forbidden trade (Jaina texts do not apparently say this, but ours do) may be
carried on if the adharma, the himsä, created is not discernible. Thus one can possi¬
bly exchange one heap, or one quantity of juices or extracts for another, so that
one has not encouraged the production of harm to jivas in any measurable sense.
If the thing is carried through logically one should not procure and give, and
should not encourage the acceptance of, objectionable objects, e.g. rhinocerus horn.
And so, no doubt, our ancient Jaina sages would have agreed. But our texts are con¬
cerned with a limited aspect of the matter. It is the case of Hindu Brahmins seeking
to occupy themselves with the trades normaUy undertaken by persons whom Hin¬
dus would classify as Vaisyas. Therefore it is selling which is under discussion. It
seems to me that when the dharmasästra devised a scheme whereby Brahmins
could, without loss of dharma, invade the way of life (an äpad-vrtti) of a mercan¬
tile community, the sages voluntarUy (but unanimously!) accepted a limitation, viz.
that Brahmins should not seU objects which Jaina merchants (themselves no doubt
classifiable as Vais'yas) would not seh. Such sales would be left to non-Brahmins
who would not, in the ordinary way, be in competition with those same Jainas. In
other words here we have a compromise with Jaina communities, figuring as a 'take-
244 J.D.M. Derrett
over' into Hinduism of a set of taboos relevant to Jainism. The capacity of Hin¬
duism to make 'take-overs' is very well known; and traces of Jaina scruples can be
detected elsewhere, e.g. Manu VI. 46, 68. It is not inconceivable that (as happened
with certain Buddhist contributions to piety) Hinduism was determined not to
leave an obviously dharmic institution entirely to Jainas, whom they called
päsandas!
At that rate it may be helpful to make a guess how old this 'take-over' was.
Brahmins were not true Brahmins, even in a 'time of distress', if they dealt in com¬
modities that an observant Jaina would not deal in. At that tinre, therefore, the
Jaina scrupulosity must have been generahy respected and its rationale known. A
clue to the age is provided by what Närada has to say about the badara and the
inguda. It is not clear that the fruit of those cultivated trees placed their jTvas
at less risk than the fmits of other trees! But one of them is an exotic, which was
actually water-borne. And the other (the badara), though certainly cultivated from
ancient times, is not necessarily an indigenous Indian tree — like the inguda it be¬
longs in South East Asia and China — and is not a typical forest tree. It is my guess
that those two trees were excluded from the taboo precisely because they did not
belong to the forests when the Jaina (or was it pre-Jaina?) culture developed. The
result is that in this quaint area a standard of righteousness beyond that of Hindus
and even Buddhists (with their dyed robes and needles!) was promulgated, for a
strictly limited purpose, adapting a really archaic concept to what had already be¬
come a much more diversified culture.
The point of this paper is to exhort scholars to look for other borrowings from
Jainism in dharmasästra (päsandas or no päsandasl).
DICHTUNG
Von Michael Hahn, Bonn
1."
Die einheimische indische Metrik stellt eine der überschaubarsten und am besten erforschten Disziplinen altindischer Wissenschaft dar. Die große Fülle verschiedener
Metren wurde schon frühzeitig systematisch geordnet und beschrieben, so daß den
Autoren späterer Zeiten nur die Aufgabe blieb, das ständig wachsende Metren-
repertoir in immer umfangreicheren Lehrbüchern und Beispielsammlungen zu
erfassen oder — dies war ein entgegengesetzter Trend — immer neue populäre
Zusammenfassungen der am meisten verwendeten Versmaße zu ersinnen; an der
Form der theoretisch-deskriptiven Darstellungsweise änderte sich nicht mehr viel.
Bereitet es somit nur geringe Mühe, die korrekten Strukturbeschreibungen be¬
liebiger Metren in den einschlägigen Handbüchern nachzuweisen, so sucht man in
diesen Werken vergebens nach einer Antwort auf die Frage, welches die Auswahl¬
kriterien für einen Dichter sein körmten, ein bestünmtes Versmaß in einem be¬
stimmten Kontext zu verwenden. Es ist dies die Frage nach den inhaltlichen Eigen¬
schaften der Versmaße, die sie - über bloße Strukturunterschiede hinaus - für
bestimmte Verwendungsweisen prädestinieren.
Der Grund fiir die relative Schweigsamkeit der älteren wie der jüngeren Auto¬
ritäten in Sachen Metrik zu diesem Punkt ist offensichtlich: so einfach es ist, die
Frage nach dem Gebrauch der Versmaße in der klassischen Sanskritliteratur zu
stellen, so schwierig ist es, selbst für Teübereiche überzeugende und über den Tag
hinaus gültige Antworten zu finden. Dabei kann kaum eine Meinungsverschieden¬
heit darüber bestehen, von welch großer theoretischer wie praktischer Bedeutung
eine genauere Kenntnis auf diesem Gebiet wäre: einerseits würden wir einen tieferen
Einblick in den Schöpfungsprozeß des Dichters gewinnen, andererseits kann em
charakteristischer Versmaßgebrauch sehr wohl eines der Kriterien sein, mit deren
Hüfe man anonyme Text einem bestimmten Autor zu- oder abspricht.
2.
Die Schwierigkeiten einer systematischen Untersuchung des Versmaßgebrauchs
offenbaren sich schon bei dem Versuch, die methodologischen Prinzipien zu formu¬
lieren, die hierbei unbedingt zu befolgen sind. Für den eigenen, sich an emigen sehr
konkreten Fragestellungen orientierenden Gebrauch habe ich mir die folgenden
elementaren Leitregeln aufgesteht:
