[74] Muir, "Metrical Translations," p. 218.
[75] Holtzmann, "Das alte indische Epos," p. 21, note 83.
[76] V. 24.
[77] This permission to prevaricate was still further extended. The following five untruths are enumerated by various writers as not constituting mortal sins—namely, at the time of marriage, during dalliance, when life is in danger, when the loss of property is threatened, and for the sake of a Brahmana. Again, another writer cites the declaration that an untruth is venial if it is spoken at the time of marriage, during dalliance, in jest, or while suffering great pain. It is evident that Venus laughed at lovers' oaths in India as well as elsewhere; and that false testimony extracted by torture was excused. Manu declared that in some cases the giver of false evidence from a pious motive would not lose his seat in heaven; indeed, that whenever the death of a man of any of the four castes would be occasioned by true evidence, falsehood was even better than truth. He gives as the primeval rule, to say what is true and what is pleasant, but not what is true and unpleasant, or what is pleasant and not true. The Vishnu-purana gives like counsel, adding the following aphorism: "A considerate man will always cultivate, in act, thought, and speech, that which is good for living beings, both in this world and in the next." About the same license appears to be used in this country and winked at.—A. W.
[78] I. 3412; III. 13844; VII. 8742; VIII. 3436, 3464.
[79] Mahâbhârata VIII. 3448.
[80] Muir, l. c. p. 268; Mahâbhârata I. 3095.
[81] Mahâbhârata I. 3015-16.
[82] This explains satisfactorily how the Hindoos became liars, and of course admits that they did become so.—Am. Pubs.
[83] Satapatha Brâhmana, translated by Eggeling, "Sacred Books of the East," vol. xii., p. 313, § 20.