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 berkata: “Jika seorang brahmana telah lebih dahulu diundang oleh brahmana lain untuk jamuan śrāddha, maka brahmana yang diundang itu tidak boleh pergi ke tempat lain untuk makan. Bila ia melakukannya, ia dipandang merosot martabatnya, dan kesalahan yang ditanggungnya dianggap seberat dosa penyembelihan hewan.”
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.