z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 05.indd MK SJ DK YS 23 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 233
RIDDLE N O . 20
KALI VARJYA OR THE BRAHMANIC ART OF SUSPENDING THE OPERATION OF SIN WITHOUT CALLING IT SIN
Few have heard of the Brahmanic dogma called Kali Varjya. It must not be confused with another Brahmanic Dogma of Kali Yuga. The dogma of Kali Varja prescribes that customs and usages which are valid and good in other yugas are not to be observed in the Kali Age. The references to these instructions are scattered in the different Puranas. But the Adityapurana has codified them and brought them together [1] . The practices which are Kali Varjya are given below :
(1) To appoint the husband’s brother for procreating a son on a widow.
(2) The remarriage of a (married) girl (whose marriage is not consummated) and of one (whose marriage was consummated) to another husband (after the death of the first.
(3) The marriage with girls of different Varna among persons of the three twice-born classes.
(4) The killing even in a straight fight of Brahmanas that have become desperadoes.
(5) The acceptance (for all ordinary intercourse such as eating with him) of a twice-born person who is in the habit of voyaging over the sea in a ship even after he has undergone a prayascitta.
(6) The initiation for a sattra.
(7) The taking of a Kamandali (a jar for water).
(8) Starting on the Great Journey.
(9) The killing of a cow in the sacrifice called Gomedha.
(10) The partaking of wine even in the Srautmani sacrifice.
1 I have taken them from Mahamahopadhya Kane’s Paper on the subject.
This is a nine-page typed copy with several corrections by the author himself. For Notes on all 43 Kali Varjyas, please see Notes to Appendix I of this part.—Ed: