Editing Alms (section)

==== In the Vedas ====
The [[Rigveda]] has the earliest discussion of ''{{IAST|dāna}}'' in the [[Vedas]] and offers reasons for the virtue of almsgiving.<ref name=rhdana>R Hindery, Comparative ethics in Hindu and Buddhist traditions, The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol 2, Number 1, page 105</ref>

{{poem quote|
The Gods have not ordained hunger to be our death: even to the well-fed man comes death in varied shape,
The riches of the liberal never waste away, while he who will not give finds none to comfort him,
The man with food in store who, when the needy comes in miserable case begging for bread to eat,
Hardens his heart against him, when of old finds not one to comfort him.

Bounteous is he who gives unto the beggar who comes to him in want of food, and the feeble,
Success attends him in the shout of battle. He makes a friend of him in future troubles,
No friend is he who to his friend and comrade who comes imploring food, will offer nothing.

Let the rich satisfy the poor implorer, and bend his eye upon a longer pathway,
Riches come now to one, now to another, and like the wheels of cars are ever rolling,
The foolish man wins food with fruitless labour: that food – I speak the truth – shall be his ruin,
He feeds no trusty friend, no man to love him. All guilt is he who eats with no partaker.
|[[Rigveda]], 10.117<ref name=rthg>[[s:The Rig Veda/Mandala 10/Hymn 117|The Rig Veda]], [[Mandala 10]], Hymn 117, [[Ralph T. H. Griffith]] (Translator)</ref>}}