Q: mArjArahatyA

[S Krishna]

>Regarding Bob Hueckstedt's question --
>
> In a short story that is used by many of us Hindi teachers in the
>intermediate level, "PrAya"scit" by Bhagavati Charan Varma, a cat is
> apparently killed near the beginning of the story. The pandit, who
> is fat and obviously trying to milk this one for all it's worth,
> tells the guilty family that the killing of a cat is as bad as
> brahminicide. Did he, or the Hindi author, just make that up? Is
> there a source for that in nIti"sAstra or dharma"sAstra somewhere? 


I think that this story was apparently made up by B.C.Verma...I think he 
was trying to illustrate how the Brahmin was willing to tell a few tales 
and invent rules in order to make a few bucks..stories like this which 
illustrate the un-moral, if not immoral ways of the Brahmin Pundits seem 
to have been very common during this period...I remember reading another 
one where a Brahmin notices bananas growing on a Banana tree and tells 
the farmer that the Bananas are facing in the wrong direction and 
therefore he( the farmer) can be harmed, but disaster can be averted if 
he donates the bananas to the Brahmin..then there seems to have been 
some kind of a Kashmiri tale about how a Brahmin desired to marry a 
beautiful princess and told her father that she would ruin him and that 
he should get rid of her by placing her in a basket and make it float 
down the river and leave a lamp burning on top of the basket( This was 
so that he knew which basket she was floating in). The basket instead of 
being discovered by the Brahmin was discovered by a prince, who married 
the princess and played a trick on the Brahmin  by getting hold of a 
monkey and placing it inside the basket...the basket eventually reached 
the Brahmin who opened the basket hoping to discover a damsel only to 
have his nose bitten off....

 The bottom line  is all of them focus on the hypocrisy of the Brahmin 
Pundits.

Regards,
Krishna


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