born of a widowed mother (by a second husband), they become as fruitless as libations poured on ashes[407].  They who present the Havya and Kavya (offered at Sraddhas) unto such Brahmanas as are divested of the duties ordained for them and of those rules of good conduct that persons of their order should observe, find such presents productive of no merits hereafter.  That man of little intelligence who makes gifts of such articles unto such men knowing their dispositions, obliges, by such conduct, his Pitris to eat human ordure in the next world.  Thou shouldst know that these wretches among Brahmanas deserve to be excluded from the line.  Those Brahmanas also of little energy who are engaged in instructing Sudras are of the same class.  A Brahmana that is blind stains sixty individual of the line; one that is destitute of virile power a hundred; while one that is afflicted with white leprosy stains as many as he looks upon, O king.  Whatever offerings made at Sraddhas are eaten by one with his head wrapped round with a cloth, whatever is eaten by one with face southwards, and whatever is eaten with shoes or sandals on all goes to gratify the Asuras.  Whatever, again, is given with malice, and whatever is given without reverence, have been ordained by Brahmana himself as the portion of the prince of Asuras (viz., Vali).  Dogs, and such Brahmanas as are polluters of lines, should not be allowed to cast their eyes upon the offerings made at Sraddhas.  For this reason, Sraddhas should be performed in a spot that is properly hedged around or concealed from the view.  That spot should also be strewn with sesame seeds.  That Sraddha which is performed without sesame seeds, or that which is done by a person in anger, has its Havi robbed by Rakshasas and Pisachas.  Commensurate with the number of Brahmanas seen by one that deserves to be excluded from the line, is the loss of merit he causes of the foolish performer of the Sraddha who invites him to the feast.

’I shall now, O chief of Bharata’s race, tell thee who are sanctifiers of the line.  Do thou find them out by examination.  All those Brahmanas that are cleansed by knowledge, Vedic study, and vows and observances, and they that are of good and righteous behaviour, should be known as sanctifiers of everything.  I shall now tell thee who deserve to sit in the line.  Thou shouldst know them to be such whom I shall indicate presently.  He that is conversant with the three Nachiketas, he that has set up the five sacrificial fires, he that knows the five Suparnas, he that is conversant with the six branches (called Angas) of the Veda, he that is a descendant of sires who were engaged in teaching the Vedas and is himself engaged in teaching, he that is well-conversant with the Chhandas, he that is acquainted with the Jeshtha Saman, he that is obedient to the sway of his parents, he that is conversant with the Vedas and whose ancestors have been so for ten generations, he that has congress with only his wedded wives and this at their seasons,