Dāna Māhātmya: The Greatness of Giving in the Mahābhārata

Dāna means giving, and māhātmya means greatness or glory. The Dāna Māhātmya in Chapter 200 of the Vana Parva of the Mahābhārata is a full teaching on the principles of giving. Mārkaṇḍeya Maharṣi gives it to Yudhiṣṭhira. It explains which gifts lead to svarga (the heavenly world), which gifts are wasted, who the right receivers are, and what the greatest gift is.

The teaching names sixteen kinds of gifts that bear no fruit. It praises anna-dāna (the gift of food) as the highest of all gifts, and sets out how to choose a worthy receiver and how to perform śrāddha (rites for the ancestors). It ends with a teaching on true śauca (purity): bodily hardships alone do not make a person pure. What purifies is inner sincerity, compassion for all beings, and giving up harm in thought, word and deed.

Four Kinds of Wasted Birth

The teaching opens with four kinds of human birth that are wasted:

1. The birth of those who have no children. A life without children fails in one of the basic duties of a householder.
2. The birth of those who have been cast out of dharma (dharma-bhraṣṭa). Those put out of their varṇa (social duty) or āśrama (stage of life) live outside the order of dharma.
3. Those who always eat in other people’s homes. Those who always depend on others for food fail in self-reliance, which is the mark of a householder’s dignity.
4. Those who cook only for themselves, without first offering to the devas, to guests and to the ancestors. The food of such people is “asat” (impure, empty of meaning). The householder’s first duty is to offer food to the devas, to guests and to the ancestors. Eating without these offerings is a sign of spiritual poverty.

Sixteen Kinds of Fruitless Gifts (Vṛthā Dāna)

These are the sixteen kinds of gifts that bring no spiritual fruit, and are wasted however generous they may be:

1. A gift to one’s parents or teachers (this is a duty, not generosity)
2. A gift to a person who tells lies
3. A gift to a pāpātman (one who does wrong)
4. A gift to a kṛtaghna (an ungrateful person)
5. A gift to a village purohita (whose position is weakened by serving everyone)
6. A gift to one who has learned the Vedas by heart without living by them
7. A gift to one who lets a śūdra lead yajñas (sacred fire offerings)
8. A gift to a brāhmaṇa of low conduct (nīca brāhmaṇa)
9. A gift to a brāhmaṇa who has married a śūdra woman
10. A gift to snake-charmers
11. A gift to servants
12. A gift to women in general (outside the proper setting of ātithya, hospitality)
13. A gift to ārūḍha-patitas (those who took up the higher stage of sannyāsa or vānaprastha but fell back to householder life)
14. A gift to merchants engaged in trade
15. A gift to thieves
16. A gift to the patita (one who has fallen from caste or dharma)

A gift made under the sway of anger, fear or other qualities of tamas (darkness) brings suffering rather than joy. Its effects are felt as duḥkha (suffering) in the womb before the next birth. By contrast, a gift given with śraddhā (faith) to true brāhmaṇas bears fruit in the next birth, according to the spiritual stature of the receiver.

The Ideal Receiver of a Gift

The teaching describes the qualities of the ideal receiver in some detail:

• A brāhmaṇa who is a scholar of the Vedas
• One who is truly poor (daridra) and in hardship
• A householder who carries the load of family duties
• One so poor that he cannot repay the gift in any form; this makes the gift a true gift and not an exchange

The principle is that the most meritorious gift goes to one who truly needs it and truly cannot repay it. Giving to those who are already rich carries no special merit.

Particular Gifts and Their Fruits

There is a striking rule about go-dāna (giving a cow): a cow must never be given to several brāhmaṇas together. They will not be able to share it without selling it, and selling a gifted cow harms three generations of the giver’s family.

Food: The Greatest Gift

The teaching reaches its high point in a long praise of anna-dāna, the gift of food, as the greatest gift:

“Yudhiṣṭhira! Leave all other dānas and simply give anna (food). There is no dāna in this world that equals anna-dāna.”

The reason given is that anna is not just food: it is Brahman itself. The Vedic teaching “annaṃ parabrahmasvarūpam”, “food is the form of the Supreme Brahman”, is quoted. Prajāpati is identified with the saṃvatsara (the year); the year is yajña; and in yajña all things find their being. Since everything finally comes from food born of yajña, giving food takes part in the most basic exchange of the universe.

One who gives rucikara (tasty, delicious) food as far as one is able reaches brahmaloka. Anyone who shows a hungry traveller the way to the home of a giver of food gains the same merit as the giver.

The benefits in order:

• Showing a hungry person where to find food: equal merit to giving the food
• Giving food freely: freedom from Yama’s judgement
• One who builds water tanks, wells and rest-houses never hears even a word of blame from Yama

True Śauca: The Teaching on Inner Purity

The chapter ends with an important teaching on the nature of śauca (purity).

Outward hardships, such as fasting, punishing the body, living in forests, lying on stone or sitting near fire, do not by themselves make true tapas (spiritual discipline) or purity. What purifies is:

1. Trikaraṇa-śuddhi: purity of thought, word and action together
2. Bhāva-śuddhi: inner purity, true sincerity of motive
3. Dayā for all beings: compassion for all living creatures throughout one’s life
4. Caring for one’s own family: those who practise hardships but are pitiless towards their own family have their tapas destroyed by that pitilessness

A person who lives in their own home, without outward renunciation, but who keeps inner purity, good conduct and compassion for all beings throughout their whole life, is a true muni (one of spiritual discipline). The pāpas of such a person melt away without any outward effort.

On the other hand, one who only starves the body, through long fasts, eating only roots and leaves, or sleeping on hard ground, but has no inner purity, gains nothing but bodily suffering.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Vana Parva, Chapter 200