Shloka 42
तीर्थवंशोपदेशः
Tīrtha-vaṃśa Upadeśa: Instruction on the Fruits of Sacred Waters
नान्यत्र ब्राह्मणोश्रीयात् पूर्व विप्रेण केतित: । यवीयान् पशुहिंसायां तुल्यधर्मो भवेत् स हि
nānyatra brāhmaṇośrīyāt pūrvaṁ vipreṇa ketitaḥ | yavīyān paśuhiṁsāyāṁ tulyadharmo bhavet sa hi ||
Bhishma sprach: „Wenn ein Brahmane bereits zuvor von einem anderen Brahmanen zu einem Śrāddha eingeladen worden ist, soll der eingeladene Brahmane nicht anderswo hingehen, um zu speisen. Tut er es doch, gilt er als in seinem Rang gemindert, und das auf sich geladene Vergehen wird der Schwere nach dem Sündenfall der Tiertötung gleichgestellt.“
भीष्म उवाच
Educational Q&A
One must honor a prior śrāddha invitation; breaking it by eating elsewhere is a serious breach of dharma, treated as morally weighty—likened to the sin of animal-slaughter—because it violates trust and disrupts sacred hospitality.
In Anuśāsana Parva, Bhīṣma instructs on righteous conduct and ritual-social duties. Here he lays down a rule for Brahmins regarding invitations for ritual feeding: once invited, the invitee should not accept food elsewhere, and doing so incurs grave fault.