Bhūmi Dāna
Bhūmi Dāna · bhūmi-dāna, “the gift of land”
Bhūmi Dāna is the gift of land to a brāhmaṇa. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches it to Yudhishṭhira in the Uttara Parva of the Bhavishya Purāṇa as the dāna that removes all pāpas. Other gifts wane with time, but the puṇya of the gift of land does not wane, and all other gifts are not equal even to a sixteenth part of it. Even land of the measure called gocarma gives the fruit of thousands of kapilā cows, and the giver is honoured by Yama, by the devatās and by Śrī Kṛshṇa himself. Land once given must never be taken back.
The gift
The land is given with dakshiṇā to a brāhmaṇa who is an agnihotrī, of a poor household, and versed in the Veda. Land given to a brāhmaṇa is not to be taken back.
Whatever pāpa a man incurs for the sake of his livelihood is removed by giving land of the measure of a gocarma. The fruit stated for the gift of a thousand gold coins, and the puṇya of giving thousands of kapilā cows, are gained by giving land of that measure.
The phala
- The giver enjoys aiśvarya for a long time and at the end goes in a divine vimāna to Vishṇu-loka.
- As long as shoots spring on the land he gave, so long he is honoured in Vishṇu-loka.
- No gift apart from land is held to be special.
- One who gives land rich with crops is honoured in Sūrya-loka as long as Bhagavān Sūrya shall last, and his pitṛs stay content until pralaya.
- The giver gains the fruit of giving all wealth, grain, gold, ratnas and ornaments.
- He has as it were given oceans, rivers, mountains, even and uneven ground, fragrance, rasa, milky oshadhis, flowers, fruits, kamala and utpala lotuses and everything.
- The puṇya gained by agnishṭoma and other yajñas with dakshiṇā is gained by it.
- Sagara and many other kings used the land, but whoever gave land during his own rule obtained its fruit.
- Yamadūtas, the mṛtyu-daṇḍa, the Asipatra-vana, the terrible pāśas of Varuṇa and the narakas beginning with Raurava do not come near the giver of land.
- Citragupta, Mṛtyu, Kāla and Yama honour him. Bhagavān Rudra, Prajāpati, Indra and the other devatās and the asuras honour him. Śrī Kṛshṇa says: “I myself honour him with the greatest delight.”
- As a mother nourishes her child and a cow her calf, so the earth, full of sap, protects and nourishes the giver of land.
- As seeds sprout when watered, so by this gift all wishes sprout and come to fruit.
- As darkness goes when Bhagavān Sūrya rises, so by this gift all kinds of pāpa go.
One who takes land back
Yamadūtas bind one who takes back a given land with the pāśas of Varuṇa and throw him into kuṇḍas filled with pus and blood. One who seizes land, given by himself or by another, burns in the fire of naraka until pralaya. For as many tears as fall from the man wronged by the seizing, for so many thousand years the seizer suffers in naraka.
One who gives land to a brāhmaṇa and seizes it again is hung upside down and cooked in the Kumbhīpāka naraka. After a divine thousand years he comes out, is born on this earth and suffers many kinds of hardship for seven births. Therefore land should not be seized.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 164
The measure of all gifts
In the Halapaṅkti Dāna, the gift of a row of ploughs, the land is given with the ploughs, and at the time of the gift the yajamāna reads this mantra:
यस्माच्च भूमिदानस्य कला नार्हन्ति षोडशीम्।
दानान्यन्यानि मे भक्तिधर्मे चास्तु दृढा सदा॥yasmācca bhūmidānasya kalā nārhanti shoḍaśīm |
dānānyanyāni me bhaktidharme cāstu dṛḍhā sadā ||Since all other gifts are not equal even to a sixteenth part of bhūmi-dāna, may my bhakti in dharma be firm.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 166
Yudhishṭhira, having heard the rule and the māhātmya of go-dāna and bhūmi-dāna, went on to ask of Vidyā-dāna. Śrī Kṛshṇa told him that one who arranges the daily reading of the Purāṇas and the like in a mandira of Śiva, Vishṇu or Sūrya gains each day the fruit of giving cow, land, gold and cloth.
Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 174
Sources
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapters 164, 166, 174