Vamana Purana — Dietary Rules & Purification, Shloka 50
Dietary Rules, Purification (Śauca), and the Duties of the Householder and Forest-Dweller
पितुरर्थं समुद्दिश्य भूमिदानादिकं स्वयम् कुर्याद्येनास्य सुप्रीताः पितरो यान्ति राक्षस
piturarthaṃ samuddiśya bhūmidānādikaṃ svayam kuryādyenāsya suprītāḥ pitaro yānti rākṣasa
Dedicating it for the sake of one’s father, one should personally perform gifts such as the donation of land and the like—by which his ancestors (pitṛs) become well pleased, O Rākṣasa.
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FAQs
The ethical center is gratitude enacted as generosity: supporting others through dāna—explicitly dedicated to the departed—becomes a socially beneficial way of honoring one’s father and stabilizing dharma across generations.
This is dharma-śikṣā (instruction on right conduct), a common purāṇic function alongside pancalakṣaṇa narratives; it is best cataloged as ācāra/dāna-vidhi material rather than cosmology or dynastic history.
Land-gift symbolizes transferring ‘support’ itself: bhūmi is the basis of sustenance, so donating it (or similar gifts) signifies converting personal holdings into lasting merit, imagined as reaching and pleasing the ancestral realm.