Dravya-Śuddhi in the Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

Dravya means a thing or substance, and śuddhi means purity. Dravya-śuddhi is the set of rules for making things pure again when they have become ritually impure: objects, substances, food, vessels, and the body itself.

Chapter 79 of the Dvitīya Khaṇḍa (second part) of the Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa sets out these rules. It gives the householder practical guidance on how to restore purity to different kinds of things after different kinds of contamination.

The Idea Behind Dravya-Śuddhi

In the Dharmaśāstra tradition (the texts on right conduct), śuddhi has two sides: the physical and the subtle. Physical impurity is the part we can see: dirt, contact with bodily substances, or contact with impure people or things. Subtle impurity is the unseen or karmic trace that physical impurity often brings with it. Dravya-śuddhi deals with both. Physical cleaning removes the coarse impurity, and the set method (water from certain sources, certain purifying substances, certain mantras) removes the subtle impurity.

The general rule is: the more sacred an object is, the harder it is to purify. A stone floor can be made pure just by washing it with water. The same cannot be said of the vessels used in a yajña (sacred fire offering).

How Different Things Are Purified

Ground (Bhū):

• Impure ground, such as a cremation ground, is purified by digging up and replacing the top layer, then applying a paste of cow-dung and letting the sunlight fall on it.
• Ground soiled by the urine or dung of impure animals: dig down three inches, replace the soil, and leave it in the sun for three days.

Metal vessels:

• Gold: it purifies itself; washing with water is enough for all ordinary impurities.
• Silver: the same as gold.
• Copper: it must be washed with ash-water (water in which wood-ash has soaked). This removes the green tarnish and the impurity that goes with it.
• Bronze and brass: wash with tamarind and ash-water.
• Iron: wash it and pass it through fire.

Clay vessels:

• Clay pots that have held impure things (bodily fluids, spoiled food) cannot be purified and must be thrown away. This is why clay pots (kumbha) used for one-time rites, such as the kalaśa (pot) used at a funeral, are broken after use: they cannot be used again.
• Clay pots used for ordinary storage can be purified by filling them with water, emptying them, and putting them in the sun, again and again.

Food:

• Grain touched by an impure person or animal: spread it in the sun with mantras, then wash it.
• Milk that has been contaminated cannot be purified and must be thrown away.
• Cooked food left overnight must be thrown away. Stale food is ritually impure, whatever it looks like.
• Honey, ghee and sesame oil resist impurity. Contact with something only mildly impure does not spoil them; they purify themselves.

Clothes and cloth:

• Wash them with water from a pure source and dry them in the sun.
• Cloth that has touched a dead body must be washed first with cow-dung water, then with plain water, and then dried in the sun.

The human body:

• The usual purification is bathing in running water.
• After contact with death, with an impure person, or with an impure substance, one bathes with pañcagavya, the five products of the cow (milk, curd, ghee, cow-dung and cow-urine, in small amounts).
• The body is fully pure once a person has bathed, put on fresh clothes, and done ācamana (sipping water as a rite of purification).

The Role of Mantras

Several purifying substances work best when used with particular mantras:

• Water used for purifying is best used with the Āpo-hiṣṭhā mantra (the water hymns of the Ṛg Veda).
• Fire used for purifying works through its smoke, together with a particular mantra recited over the object.

Puṣkara’s deeper teaching is that outer cleanliness is needed but is not enough by itself. It is the mantra that turns physical cleaning into spiritual purification.

Sources

• Viṣṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapter 79