Gṛha Dāna

Gṛha Dāna · gṛha dāna, “the gift of a house”

Gṛha Dāna is the gift of a house to a brāhmaṇa. The Bhavishya Purāṇa teaches it in the Uttara Parva, Chapter 168, where Mahārāja Yudhishṭhira asks Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa, the knower of the heart of all the śāstras, for its vidhi (the rule of the rite) and its glory. Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa declares that no dāna (gift) is greater.

A strong, tall house is built and filled with everything a household needs. In an auspicious muhūrta learned brāhmaṇas and their wives are invited and honoured. A kuṇḍa is made in the courtyard, a graha-yāga is performed, and the Rakshoghna Sūkta, vāstu-pūjā and bhūtabali follow. Then the yajamāna leads the brāhmaṇas in, seats them with their wives, and gives the house with the words “receive this house”. The one who gives such a house reaches Śivaloka.

The glory of the house

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches Yudhishṭhira:

  • There is no dharma greater than gārhasthya dharma (the dharma of the householder), no pāpa (sin) greater than untruth, none more worthy of honour than a brāhmaṇa, and no dāna greater than Gṛha Dāna.
  • A house full of wealth, grain, wife, sons, elephants, horses, cows and servants gives more happiness than svarga (heaven).
  • As all beings live by the shelter of the mother, so all the āśramas rest on the gṛhastha āśrama.
  • The happiness of sleeping at night with feet stretched out in one’s own house is not found even in svarga.
  • Even eating śāka (greens) in one’s own house is the highest happiness.

So, he says, a fine house should be built and given to a brāhmaṇa. One who builds a house or a dharmaśālā (a house of rest) for Śaivas, Vaishṇavas, yogīs, the poor, the helpless, guests who arrive and others receives the fruit of all vratas and all kinds of dāna.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 168

The house to be built

The house is strong, of baked brick, tall and white. It has lattices, windows, pillars and doors. A water body and a flower garden adorn it, and a fine courtyard graces it. It rises like the back of a tortoise and has verandas, several storeys and passages.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 168

The equipment placed in it

These are the equipment of a householder, in the order the text gives them:

  • Vessels of iron, gold, silver, copper, wood and clay.
  • Cloth, leather, bark and grass, and stone vessels.
  • Rasa (liquids and flavours) and ornaments.
  • A cow, a buffalo, a horse and a bull.
  • Every kind of grain and food: ghee, sesame, rice, mustard, peas, arhar, gram and urad.
  • Salt, dates, cumin and coriander.
  • A hearth, a grindstone, a sieve, a mortar, a pestle, a winnowing basket, a cooking pot, a churn, a broom and a water pot.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 168

The vidhi

  1. With the equipment in place, in an auspicious muhūrta, the giver invites brāhmaṇas who are of good family and good character, who know the Veda and the śāstras, who keep the gṛhastha dharma and are masters of the senses, and who come with their wives.
  2. He honours them with cloth, gandha (fragrance), ornaments, garlands and the like, and appoints them for the śānti-karma (the rite of peace).
  3. In the courtyard of the house a kuṇḍa with one mekhalā (girdle of the fire-pit) is made.
  4. Through the brāhmaṇas a graha-yāga is performed, which gives tushṭi (contentment) and pushṭi (nourishment).
  5. The brāhmaṇas recite the Rakshoghna Sūkta, then do vāstu-pūjā, and offer bhūtabali (offerings to the beings) in all directions.
  6. With a holy and auspicious sound of recitation the yajamāna leads the brāhmaṇas into the houses made for the dāna, and seats them with their wives on beds.
  7. The house fixed beforehand for each brāhmaṇa is given to him with the words:

इदं गृहं गृहाण

idaṃ gṛhaṃ gṛhāṇa

Receive this house.

The brāhmaṇas say svasti and recite the mantra ko’dāt (Yajus 7.48).

One who has the means gives one house to each brāhmaṇa; or else he builds a single house and gives it to one sat-pātra (a truly worthy recipient) brāhmaṇa.

The Madhyama Parva names 100 rattīs of gold as the dakshiṇā for a graha-yāga. A graha-yāga is also performed in the Kalpalatā-dāna, with the dikpāla-homa, the ādhāra and ājyabhāga oblations and homa with the vyāhṛtis.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 168; Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 2, Chapters 3–5; Uttara Parva, Chapters 178–179

The phala

Bhagavān Śrī Kṛshṇa says to Yudhishṭhira: when even a hut of grass that shelters from cold, wind and sun, given to brāhmaṇas, fulfils all desires and gains svarga, how far could the fruit of giving a fine house be described?

Gifts of cows, land, gold and the like, and the keeping of many kinds of yama and niyama (restraints and observances), do not equal even a sixteenth part of Gṛha Dāna. One who gives a brāhmaṇa a strong, fine house with all its equipment reaches Śivaloka.

Source: Bhavishya Purāṇa, Uttara Parva, Chapter 168

Sources

  • Bhavishya Purāṇa, Madhyama Parva, Bhāga 2, Chapters 3–5; Uttara Parva, Chapters 168, 178–179