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Vishnu-smriti (Vishnu sutra / Vaishnava Dharmasâstra)
Transmigration
XLIV.1
1. Now after having suffered the torments inflicted in the hells, the evil-doers pass into animal bodies.
2. Criminals in the highest degree enter the bodies of all plants successively.
3. Mortal sinners enter the bodies of worms or insects.
4. Minor offenders enter the bodies of birds.
5. Criminals in the fourth degree enter the bodies of aquatic animals.
6. Those who have committed a crime effecting loss of caste, enter the bodies of amphibious animals.
7. Those who have committed a crime degrading to a mixed caste, enter the bodies of deer.
8. Those who have committed a crime rendering them unworthy to receive alms, enter the bodies of cattle.
9. Those who have committed a crime causing defilement, enter the bodies of (low-caste) men (such as Kandâlas), who may not be touched.
10. Those who have committed one of the miscellaneous crimes, enter the bodies of miscellaneous wild carnivorous animals (such as tigers).
11. One who has eaten the food of one whose food may not be eaten, or forbidden food, becomes a worm or insect.2
12. A thief (of other property than gold), becomes a falcon.
13. One who has appropriated a broad passage, becomes a (serpent or other) animal living in holes.
14. One who has stolen grain, becomes a rat.
15. One who has stolen white copper, becomes a Hamsa.
16. One who has stolen water, becomes a waterfowl.
17. One who has stolen honey, becomes a gad-fly.
18. One who has stolen milk, becomes a crow.
19. One who has stolen juice (of the sugar-cane or other plants), becomes a dog.
20. One who has stolen clarified butter, becomes an ichneumon.
21. One who has stolen meat, becomes a vulture.
22. One who has stolen fat, becomes a cormorant.
23. One who has stolen oil, becomes a cockroach.
24. One who has stolen salt, becomes a cricket.
25. One who has stolen sour milk, becomes a crane.
26. One who has stolen silk, becomes a partridge.
27. One who has stolen linen, becomes a frog.
28. One who has stolen cotton cloth, becomes a curlew.
29. One who has stolen a cow, becomes an iguana.
30. One who has stolen sugar, becomes a Vâlguda.3
31. One who has stolen perfumes, becomes a musk-rat.
32. One who has stolen vegetables, consisting of leaves, becomes a peacock.
33. One who has stolen prepared grain, becomes a (boar called) Svâvidh (or Sedhâ).
34. One who has stolen undressed grain, becomes a porcupine.
35. One who has stolen fire, becomes a crane.
36. One who has stolen household utensils, becomes a wasp (usually called Karata).
37. One who has stolen dyed cloth, becomes a Kakor partridge.
38. One who has stolen an elephant, becomes a tortoise.
39. One who has stolen a horse, becomes a tiger
40. One who has stolen fruits or blossoms, becomes an ape.
41. One who has stolen a woman, becomes a bear.
42. One who has stolen a vehicle, becomes a camel.
43. One who has stolen cattle, becomes a vulture.
44. He who has taken by force any property belonging to another, or eaten food not first presented to the gods (at the Vaisvadeva offering), inevitably enters the body of some beast
45. Women, who have committed similar thefts, receive the same ignominious punishment: they become females to those male animals.
XLV.4
1. Now after having undergone the torments inflicted in the hells, and having passed through the animal bodies, the sinners are born as human beings with (the following) marks (indicating their crime):
2. A criminal in the highest degree shall have leprosy;5
3. A killer of a Brâhmana, pulmonary consumption;
4. A drinker of spirits, black teeth;
5. A stealer of gold (belonging to a Brâhmana), deformed nails;
6. A violator of his spiritual teacher's bed, a disease of the skin;
7. A calumniator, a stinking nose;
8. A malignant informer, stinking breath;
9. A stealer of grain, a limb too little;
10. One who steals by mixing (i. e. by taking good grain and replacing the same amount of bad grain in its stead), a limb too much;
11. A stealer of food, dyspepsia;
12. A stealer of words6, dumbness;
13. A stealer of clothes, white leprosy;
14. A stealer of horses, lameness;
15. One who pronounces an execration against a god or a Brâhmana, dumbness;
16. A poisoner, a stammering tongue;
17. An incendiary, madness;
18. One disobedient to a Guru (father), the falling sickness;
19. The killer of a cow, blindness;7
20. The stealer of a lamp, the same;
21. One who has extinguished a lamp, blindness with one eye;8
22. A seller of tin, chowries, or lead, is born a dyer of cloth;
23. A seller of (horses or other) animals whose foot is not cloven, is born a hunter;
24. One who eats the food of a person born from adulterous intercourse9, is born as a man who suffers his mouth to be abused;
25. A thief (of other property than gold), is born a bard;
26. A usurer becomes epileptic;
27. One who eats dainties alone, shall have rheumatics;
28. The breaker of a convention, a bald head;
29. The breaker of a vow of chastity, swelled legs;
30. One who deprives another of his subsistence, shall be poor;
31. One who injures another (without provocation), shall have an incurable illness.
32. Thus, according to their particular acts, are men born, marked by evil signs, sick, blind, humpbacked, halting, one-eyed;
33. Others as dwarfs, or deaf, or dumb, feeble-bodied (eunuchs, whitlows, and others). Therefore must penances be performed by all means.
Footnotes
1. 1-43. M. XII. 54-67; Y. III, 207-215.--44, 45. M. XII, 68, 69.
2. See LI, 3 seq.
3. 'The Vâlguda is a kind of bat.' (Nand.) The name Vâlguda is evidently related to valgulî, 'a kind of bat,' and identical with Vâgguda, (M. XII, 64) and Vâgvada (Haradatta on Gaut. XVII, 34), which, according to Dr. Bühler's plausible suggestion, {footnote p. 146} are names of large herbivorous bat, usually called the flying fox (in Gûgaratî vâgud or vâgul).' See Dr. Bühler's note on Gaut. loc. cit.
4. 2-31. M. XI, 49-52; Y. III, 209-211,--32, 33. M. XI, 53, 54.
5. According to a text of Sâtâtapa, which Nand. quotes in explanation of this Sûtra, connection with the mother is punished with 'failing or incurable epilepsy,' when the organ falls of, connection with a daughter is punished with red epilepsy; connection with a daughter-in-law, with black leprosy; and connection with a sister, with yellow leprosy.
6. I. e. according to Kullâka -and Nand., 'one who studies the Veda without permission to do so;' or it may denote, according to Nand., 'a stealer of a book,' or 'one who fails to communicate information which he is able to give.'
7. Nand. quotes a text of Sâtâtapa, from which he infers the use of the particle tu to indicate here, that a killer of his mother shall also be born blind.
8. The particle ka, according to Nand., indicates here, that such persons shall also be afflicted with the morbid affection of the eyes called Timira, as stated by Sâtâtapa.
9. Nand. says that kundâsin may also mean 'one who eats food to the amount of a kunda.' See also Dr. Bühler's note on Gaut. XV, 18.
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