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 dijo: «Si un brahmán ha sido invitado de antemano por otro brahmán para un śrāddha, no debe ir a comer a otro lugar. Si lo hace, se le considera menguado en su condición, y la falta incurrida se tiene por comparable, en gravedad, al pecado de sacrificar animales.»
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.