1858.] Of two Edicts bestoiving Land. 237 



7. Sixty thousand years does the donor of land abide in the 

 regions of the blessed ; and just as many does he dwell in hell, 

 who practices disseizin, or acquiesces in it.* 



c A man may digest iron-filings, powdered stone, and poison. But what man, 

 in the three worlds, shall digest the property of a Brahman ? 



' By the destruction of consecrated wealth, by the inequitable seizure of a Brah- 

 man's fortune, and by disrespect to Brahmans, whole families suffer degradation.' 



Tn some inscriptions, the latter half of the first couplet above cited runs thus : 



e — contracts demerit equal to that of the slayer of a hundred thousand kine.' 

 In other inscriptions, the first distich of this stanza is materially altered, as 

 below; and the second distich is quite different from anything yet given : 



wit witem %v ^ttt^ w^xrmir^ ii 



1 Diligently do thou guard, O king, land bestowed by thyself or by others. 

 More meritorious, most eminent of princes, is the protection of land than is the 

 giving of it.' 



The Bhdg.avata-purdna confines its denunciations to the sacrilegious : 



*rf£ ^nt^^Tfar t>^T^f mvem Wifa: II 



10th skandha, latter section, 64th adhydya, 39th s'l. 

 c He who wrongfully confiscates the wealth of a Brahman, bestowed by him" 

 self,' &c. 



This couplet, with insignificant verbal deviations, is quoted by Jagannatha Tar- 

 kapanchanana Bhattacharya, in the Vivdda-bhangdrnava , through the Dipa-kalikd. 

 See Colebrooke's Digest of Hindu Law, &c, Vol. II., pp. 165, 166 ; 8vo. ed. 

 Once more, from the Bhdgavata-purdna : 



11th skandha, 27th adhydya, 64th s'l. 



1 He who disseizes the gods or Brahmans of property conferred by himself or by 

 others, is bom, during ten thousand times ten thousand years, a feeder on dung.' 



* This couplet, but read a little otherwise, is cited, as from the A'dipurdna, 

 by Jagannatha Tarkapanchanana Bhattacharya. See the last note; and Cole- 

 brooke's Digest, &c, Vol. II., p. 163 ; Svo. ed. 



The word *n:^f, in the text, would well be exchanged for «f ^^. 



According to Yajnavalkya— III., 230,— the forcible usurpation of land is nearly 

 tantamount, as a crime, to theft of gold. Compare the Laws of the Miiuavas 

 XL, 58. 



