Such, Maitreya, is the sin of conversing with a heretic, and such are the expiatory effects of bathing after the solemn sacrifice of a horse, as I have narrated them to you. Let therefore a man carefully avoid the discourse or contact of an unbeliever, especially at seasons of devotion, and when engaged in the performance of religious rites preparatory to a sacrifice. If it be necessary that a wise man should look at the sun, after beholding one who has neglected his domestic ceremonies for a month, how much greater need must there be of expiation after encountering one who has wholly abandoned the Vedas? one who is supported by infidels, or who disputes the doctrines of holy writ? Let not a person treat with even the civility of speech, heretics, those who do forbidden acts, pretended saints, scoundrels, sceptics 11, and hypocrites. Intercourse with such iniquitous wretches, even at a distance, all association with schismatics, defiles; let a man therefore carefully avoid them.

These, Maitreya, are the persons called naked, the meaning of which term you desired to have explained. Their very looks vitiate the performance of an ancestral oblation; speaking to then destroys religious merit for a whole day. These are the unrighteous heretics to whom a man must not give shelter, and speaking to whom effaces whatever merit he may that day have obtained. Men, indeed, fall into hell as the consequence of only conversing with those who unprofitably assume the twisted hair, and shaven crown; with those who feed without offering food to gods, spirits, and guests; and those who are excluded from the presentation of cakes, and libations of water, to the manes.

Footnotes

338:1 The situation chosen for the first appearance of the heresy agrees well enough with the great prevalence of the Jain faith in the west of India in the eleventh and twelfth centuries (As. Res. XVI. 318), or perhaps a century earlier, and is a circumstance of some weight in investigating the date of the Vishńu Puráńa.

338:2 A bunch of peacock's feathers is still an ordinary accompaniment of a Jain mendicant. According to the Hindi poem, the Prithu Rai Charitra, it was borne by the Buddhist Amara Sinha; but that work is not, perhaps, very good authority for Bauddha observances, at least of an ancient date.

339:3 In this and the preceding contradictions it is probable that the writer refers, although not with much precision, to the sceptical tenets of the Jainas, whence they are called commonly Syádvádis, assertors of probabilities, or of what may be. These usually form seven categories, or, 1. a thing is; 2. it is not; 3. it is, and it is not; 4. it is not definable; 5. it is, but is not definable; 6. it is not, neither is it definable; 7. it is, and it is not, and is not definable. Hence the Jains are also termed Saptavádis and Saptabhangis, assertors and oppugners of seven propositions. As. Res. XVII. 271; and Trans. Royal As. Soc. I. 555.