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Collette Caillat
Thus, rules regarding speech are, in fact, but the application to a particular case of general injuctions to keep one's organs (organs of sense, organs of action and manas) under complete control (cf. Mn 2.88) the organ of speech being the tenth in the list.
Therefore, it would seem normal that, in the Dhs, general instructions should be given about the proper use of Vāc. Nevertheless, most of the time, in the texts, the rules are laid down for specific categories of individuals : the householder, or, more often, the brahmacārin, the student who has returned home, the snātaka...
Now, what are these rules ? Two sets can be distinguished : (1) the rules connected with salutation; (2) the rules which might be termed apotropaic, whether the danger is visible or occult.
(1) It is well known that "reverential salutation" is looked upon as strengthening vardhana.2 Conversely, as stressed in a floating stanza, "he who habitually salutes and constantly pays........ reverence to the aged obtains an increase of four (things), (namely) glory, length of life, fame, (and) strength". 3
abhivāda-filasya nityam urddhopasevinaḥ
catvāri sampravardhante, kirtir ayur yato bulam (Mbh. 5.39.60). The same view is expressed among the Buddhists. 4
With minor variants, Mn (2.121) applies the maxim to the brahm acărin : catvāri tasya vardhante, āyuh prajñü yašo balam.
As a matter of fact, in the Dhs, much importance is attached to terms of address and to saluting -a topic to which the sixth chapter of the Gaut DhS is 1. vāk caiva dašami smrta, Mn 2. 90 d. -
Compare Asoka, Rock Edict XII (C), recommending vaca- (vaci-) gutti
and, infra, Uttarajjhayaņa 24. 22-23. 2. J. Gonda, IIJ 8 (1964), p. 14, quoting RV 6.51.8. 3. For concordances, L. Sternbach, Mahā-subhāṣita-samgraha 2, Hoshiarpur
1976 (Vishveshvaranand Vedic Research Institute, V. Indological Series
69, no 2336, compare 2337-8). Trsl. following Bühler, Mn 2.121. 4. abhivādana-silissa niccam vaddhapacāyino
cattaro dhammā vaddhanti : ayu vanno sukham balam, Dhp 109, of which the Gāndhāri Dharmapada rendering is :
ahivadana-filisa nica dridhavayarino catvari tasa vardhadi
ayo kirta suha bala (ed. J. Brough, London ...., 1962, London Oriental Series, 7), 172. 5. Cf-Kane, History of Dharmaśāstra, 2.1, p. 333 ff., specially 336 ff.,
ubi alia.
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