Āśauca

Āśauca, “ritual impurity”

Āśauca is the state of ritual impurity that falls on a family when a child is born (jananāśauca) or when a member dies (maraṇāśauca). It is kept for a fixed number of days that depends on the varṇa and on how close the relation is. During this time the family keeps apart from certain sacred acts.

The dharmaśāstra (the body of rules on right living) on āśauca sets out exactly how long this impurity lasts, who is affected, which rites are needed during and after it, who is exempt, and how the family becomes pure again.

Per Agni Purāṇa

The Agni Purāṇa gives the rules of āśauca in Chapters 157 to 159, where Pushkara teaches Paraśurāma.

Chapter 159 ends the teaching with a reflection on the nature of death and on Bhagavān Vishṇu as the highest refuge.

The principle of āśauca

Āśauca falls on the sapiṇḍas when a member of the family is born or dies. The sapiṇḍas are the kinsmen from the common ancestor down through the seventh generation. During āśauca some sacred acts stop: the recitation of the Vedas, the performance of yajña, the acceptance of dāna, the performance of śrāddha and other holy acts. The wise householder must keep the rules of āśauca as part of sadācāra (right conduct). If he does not, every śrāddha and yajña done in that time is spoiled. (Chapter 157)

Maraṇāśauca: impurity at a death

How long it lasts for each varṇa (Chapter 157)

For sapiṇḍas, maraṇāśauca lasts:

• Brāhmaṇas: 10 days (daśa-rātra)
• Kshatriyas: 11 days
• Vaiśyas: 15 days
• Śūdras: 30 days (one month)

For the anuloma-jātas (those born of mixed unions), the number of days is the same as that of the varṇa of their natural guardian (svāmī). (Chapter 157)

Jananāśauca: impurity at a birth (Chapter 157)

Birth impurity for kshatriyas, vaiśyas and śūdras is also ten days. Some authorities hold that for vaiśyas and śūdras, jananāśauca is fifteen days. (Chapter 157)

When an infant or child dies (Chapter 157)

These are the rules for the death of a child:

• A child who dies before the teeth appear: purity at once (sadyaḥ-śuddhi). There is no āśauca period.
• A child who dies after the teeth appear but before cūḍākaraṇa (the first haircut): one night (ekarātrāśauca).
• A child who dies after cūḍākaraṇa but before yajñopavīta (the sacred thread): three nights (trirātrāśauca).
• A child who dies after yajñopavīta: the full ten-day āśauca.

For śūdras: if the child dies within three years, āśauca ends after five days. After three years it is eleven days. After six years it is one month. (Chapter 157)

When an unmarried or a married woman dies (Chapter 157)

• An unmarried girl who dies before cūḍākaraṇa: one night of maraṇāśauca for the family.
• An unmarried girl who dies after cūḍākaraṇa: three days for the family.
• A married woman who dies: no maraṇāśauca for her father’s family (pitṛ-kula). Their duty ends at her marriage.
• A married daughter who gives birth in her father’s house: only one night of jātāśauca for the family. The woman herself keeps ten days.
• A married woman who dies in her father’s house: three nights of āśauca for her father’s family.

(Chapter 157)

News that comes from a distance (Chapter 157)

If a person is away and hears of a birth or a death:

• If he hears within the ten-day period, he keeps āśauca only for the days that remain of that period.
• If he hears after ten days have passed, he keeps three days of āśauca.
• If he hears after a full year has passed, a bath (snāna) alone makes him pure.

For the death of a mātāmaha (mother’s father) or of an ācārya (teacher), the āśauca is three nights. (Chapter 157)

Āśauca after a miscarriage (Chapter 158)

Chapter 158 gives the rules for āśauca that comes from a miscarriage (garbha-srāva) or a fall of the child (garbha-pāta), and from a birth before time. For a miscarriage up to the fourth month, or a birth that fails in the fifth or sixth month, the number of nights of āśauca equals the number of months of the pregnancy. Some authorities hold that in these cases three days are enough. From the seventh month onward, the full ten nights of āśauca apply to the woman. After seven months:

• Kshatriya woman: four nights
• Vaiśya woman: five nights
• Śūdra woman: eight days

After seven months, eleven days of āśauca apply to all. This āśauca is for the mother only. The father becomes pure by a bath alone. (Chapter 158)

Change by good conduct: guṇa-ādhikya (Chapter 158)

The length of āśauca can be made shorter for people of high conduct. The rule is:

• A person whose āśauca is ten days (a brāhmaṇa): if he keeps the agnihotra and the study of the Veda, he becomes pure in one day. If he is a good but ordinary dvija, in seven days. The brāhmaṇa in name only needs the full ten.
• A kshatriya of good conduct: nine days. An ordinary one: twelve.
• A vaiśya of good conduct: ten days. An ordinary one: fifteen.
• A śūdra of good conduct: twenty days. An ordinary one: thirty (one month).

For one who is guṇādhika (higher in good qualities), a ten-day āśauca can become three days. A three-day āśauca can become one day. A one-day āśauca can be dissolved at once. (Chapter 158)

Servants, disciples and shared households (Chapter 158)

Dāsas (servants), śishyas (disciples) and bhṛtyas (attendants) who live with their master or guru keep the same āśauca as the master’s family when the master dies. Those who keep the agni-hotra are affected from the moment the dead person is cremated. Those who do not keep the agni-hotra are affected from the moment of death itself. When the first third of the āśauca period has passed, touching others (sparśa) is allowed again. (Chapter 158)

The remains are gathered and put away on the fourth day after the death for brāhmaṇas, the fifth day for kshatriyas, the seventh for vaiśyas and the ninth for śūdras. (Chapter 158)

Purification after āśauca

Chapter 158 gives these ways of becoming pure at the end of āśauca:

1. A bath in a sacred river (snāna).
2. Placing the bones (asthi) in the Gaṅgā. As long as they remain there, the departed dwells in svarga.
3. For those who die without their saṃskāras done, and for the patitas (the fallen): a Nārāyaṇa-bali is to be offered with great compassion (mahānugraha-buddhi). By it the grace of Bhagavān Nārāyaṇa reaches even them.
4. The remembrance of the name of Śrī Hari (Hari-nāma-smaraṇa) at the time of death gives both svarga and moksha.

Reflection on death (Chapter 159)

Chapter 159 closes the section on āśauca. It teaches that, whether or not the saṃskāras have been done, the remembrance of the name of Śrī Hari (nāma-smaraṇa) at the time of death takes the jīva to svarga and moksha. The text also says that the departed jīva receives the śrāddha done here, wherever it now rests: in svarga, in naraka, or anywhere else. (Chapter 159)

The Purāṇa then teaches about the nature of death:

• Death does not wait for a person’s tasks to be finished. Like a wolf that seizes an unwary sheep, kāla (time) takes the jīva when its āyurdāya (span of life) and its prārabdha-karma (the karma that has begun to bear fruit) are used up.
• A person on whom kāla has not yet turned its eye cannot be killed even by hundreds of arrows. A person whose time has come falls at the lightest touch of a blade of kuśa grass.
• No medicine and no mantra can protect a person whose time has come.
• As a calf finds its mother without fail, so the karma of a former life follows the jīva to its next life.
• The beginning of this world is avyakta (unmanifest). The end is also avyakta. Only the middle is manifest.
• The jīva passes through youth, manhood and old age in one body, and gains another body as easily as a person puts on a new garment.
• The jīva is avaddhya (it cannot be killed). It never truly dies, and so grief over death should be given up.

(Chapter 159)

Per Garuḍa Purāṇa

The ṛshi Yājñavalkya taught these rules together with the rules of āpad-vṛtti, the other ways of earning a living allowed to each varṇa (social class) in times of great need. Both are given as one continuous teaching in Adhyāya (Chapter) 106 of the Ācāra Khaṇḍa of the Garuḍa Purāṇa. Here āśauca is the state of ritual impurity that comes when a birth or a death takes place in one’s family or kin group.

Āśauca after a Death: Rites by Age

The rites of death and the length of āśauca depend on the age of the one who has died:

• A child under two years: not cremated but buried, at a place outside the town or village, not in a śmaśāna (cremation ground). The body is adorned with garlands, fragrant oils and sandal. No jalāñjali (offering of water) is made. For the parents, the āśauca ends as soon as the burial is done.
• A child between two years and upanayana (the sacred-thread ceremony): relatives take the body to the śmaśāna and cremate it with the laukika agni (ordinary fire) while the Yama-sūkta (a Vedic hymn to Yama) is recited. The full cremation rites are followed.
• After upanayana: full cremation as for an āhitāgni (one who keeps the sacred household fires), with the complete set of rites.

Jalāñjali (Dharmodaka)

Jalāñjali is an offering of water made in a stream or pond while saying the name and gotra (family clan) of the one who has died. Yājñavalkya taught that it is to be given for:

• Friends
• Married women (sisters and others)
• The wife’s brother
• The father-in-law (śvaśura)
• The ṛtvijs (priests who led one’s yajñas)
• The ācārya (teacher)

These water offerings are also called dharmodakas, “waters of dharma”. The following may not receive dharmodakas: pāshaṇḍas (those who reject the Veda), patitas (those who have fallen from dharma), vrātyas (those who never received initiation), vyabhicāriṇī-strīs (women of immoral conduct), drunkards, and those who took their own lives.

How Long Death-Impurity Lasts

The text gives the length of death-impurity (mṛtāśauca) for sapiṇḍas, the close relatives who share offerings to the same ancestors:

By distance of generation among sapiṇḍas:

• 4th generation and nearer: 10 days
• 5th generation: 6 days
• 6th generation: 4 days
• 7th generation: 3 days

When a child dies in a foreign land, the āśauca is very small: taking snāna (a bath) on hearing the news is enough.

Āśauca for Children by Stage of Growth

Impurity from a child’s death is measured by the child’s stage of growth:

• Before the teeth appear (a very young baby): āśauca ends with the burial.
• After the teeth appear, before cūḍākaraṇa (the first haircut ceremony): one night and one day of āśauca.
• After cūḍākaraṇa, before upanayana: three days of āśauca.
• After upanayana: full āśauca applies (ten days for brāhmaṇa sapiṇḍas).

For the parents of a child who died before the age of two, āśauca lasts ten days. The same period applies whether it is birth-impurity (janmāśauca) or death-impurity (mṛtāśauca).

Who Is Free from Āśauca

Some people are not touched by āśauca, whatever births or deaths happen among their relatives:

• One who is running a satra without a break (a free public kitchen, open day and night)
• One keeping the kṛcchra-cāndrāyaṇa or other vratas (sacred vows)
• One in brahmacarya-dīkshā (the vow of a celibate student)
• A vānaprastha (one who has retired to the forest)
• A brahma-vit sannyāsī (a renunciant who knows Brahman)
• Goods set aside for dāna (giving), and articles gathered for a vivāha (wedding)
• People in the middle of a battle, a flood or some other great crisis

The reason is clear. These people or situations stand either in a higher spiritual state or in extraordinary public duty, which goes beyond the ordinary rules of ritual purity.

Conduct during Āśauca

During the āśauca period:

• Everyone sleeps on the ground (bhūśayana).
• Food is eaten only when others give it; the family does not cook for itself.
• For three days a piṇḍa (ball of rice) is offered each day at dusk, in silence, on the ground, for the preta (the newly departed).
• The kartā (the one performing the śrāddha rites for the dead) stands under the open sky and offers water and milk in clay pots to the pretātmā (the departed soul).
• If the kartā himself is in āśauca, he must purify himself through the proper rites of agni (fire) before doing the śrāddha.

Coming Back from the Cremation

After returning from the cremation ground:

• Before entering the house, everyone chews a neem twig, does ācamana (sips water for purification), and touches fire, water, cow dung, white mustard seeds and a stone.
• Even those who stayed in the house and did not go to the cremation must do this rite of entry.

Āpad-Vṛtti: Earning a Living in an Emergency

Yājñavalkya taught the rules of āpad-vṛtti, the other kinds of work open to each varṇa in times of great need.

For a brāhmaṇa in āpat (distress):

• He may take up the vṛtti (livelihood) of a kshatriya or a vaiśya.
• He may sell produce, but never salt. He must also not sell forbidden items: somarasa, cloth, creepers, medicinal plants, milk, yoghurt, ghee, water, sesame, cooked food, sugar, honey, lac, gems, sandals, animal skins, meat, perfumes or roots.
• He may buy and sell grains and medicinal plants for the sake of his śrauta and smārta duties (Vedic and household rites), but only in āpat, and never salt.

A brāhmaṇa who follows such other work while keeping up his own yajña-karma (duties of offering) stays as pure as the sun. His brāhmaṇa-hood is not lessened. Farming, keeping cattle and similar work are also allowed in āpat, except the selling of horses.

Bhikshā (asking for alms) as a last resort

Even a gṛhastha (householder) brāhmaṇa may ask for bhikshā in āpat, but for no more than three days. The grain received is to be eaten on one day only. This must be declared openly. When the rājan (king) learns of such a case, it is his duty to look into the brāhmaṇa’s qualifications, background, tapas (spiritual discipline) and learning, and to arrange for him to live by dharma.

Āśauca and prāyaścitta (Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 222)

Chapter 222 of the Ācāra Khaṇḍa gives rules of āśauca and prāyaścitta (expiation) for certain special cases.

How long sūtaka lasts for each varṇa

Sūtaka is another word for this impurity. Its lengths are:

• Brāhmaṇa: 10 days (daśa-rātra)
• Kshatriya: 12 days
• Vaiśya: 15 days
• Śūdra: 30 days

Children and young deaths

• A child who dies within one month of birth: the āśauca of the family is ended by a bath alone. No longer impurity applies.
• An unmarried girl or an uninitiated boy who dies: āśauca lasts three nights (tri-rātra).
• A child under three years who dies: āśauca lasts three nights.
• A child whose milk-teeth have not yet fallen (a very young child): the same three-night rule.
• A miscarriage (garbhasrāva): three nights of āśauca for the household.

When āśauca does not apply

• During dīkshā-kāla (the time of initiation into a vrata or a yajña): no āśauca arises.
• Where a vivāha has already been arranged (the agreements for the marriage have been made): the auspicious work (śubha-kārya) goes on without a break for āśauca.
• The agnihotra, the recitation of the Veda (Veda-pāṭhana), the vaiśvadeva and yajñas that are already going on: these parts of the house are not touched by āśauca, even if it is present in other parts of the home.

Prāyaścitta for breaking the rules of āśauca

There is a graded prāyaścitta for the different ways of breaking the rules of āśauca:

The measures of pañcagavya

Chapter 222 gives these measures for pañcagavya (the five products of the cow), in māśas (a unit of weight):

Mixed with kuśodaka (water with kuśa grass), this makes the most powerful pañcagavya. The text calls it sarva-mala-vināśaka (the destroyer of all impurities). Chapter 128 gives measures for it by pala units. (Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 222)

Āśauca in the Dharma Khaṇḍa (Chapter 5)

The Dharma Khaṇḍa gives the rules of āśauca after a death as the Ācāra Khaṇḍa gives them (Chapters 106 and 107). For sapiṇḍa relatives, maraṇāśauca lasts ten days for brāhmaṇas, with the lengths given for each varṇa for the others.

The Dharma Khaṇḍa teaches that during the āśauca period the sequence of the daśagātra piṇḍa offerings goes on every day. Building the body of the preta (the departed one) comes before the limits on formal rites, because the piṇḍa offerings in this time are acts of direct need and not ordinary rites. Purification at the end of āśauca is by a bath, the touching of water, and the dāna that is prescribed for brāhmaṇas. (Dharma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 5)

Per Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa

The Madhyama Bhāga of the Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa treats the rules of āśauca in Chapters 12 to 14, within its Pitṛkalpa section.

Maraṇāśauca for each varṇa (Chapter 12)

For sapiṇḍas, this is the schedule of maraṇāśauca:

• Brāhmaṇa: 10 days
• Kshatriya: 12 days
• Vaiśya: 15 days
• Śūdra: 30 days

Jananāśauca follows the same pattern. A woman’s rajasvalā-āśauca (impurity in her monthly time) is four days. (Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 12)

The procedure of śauca with earth (Chapter 13)

Chapter 13 gives the full procedure of śauca (purification) that is used after āśauca and in daily life. It teaches:

• Applications of mṛttikā (earth): how many times sacred earth is put on the different parts of the body for purification. The hands need more applications than the face, and the number differs with how impure the thing to be cleansed is.
• Pāda-prakshālaṇa (washing the feet): the right time, the sacred earth to be used, and the mantra that goes with it.
• Ācamana (sipping water to purify within): the mantra, the quantity of water (the size of a small chickpea for ordinary ācamana), the posture, and the order of touching the face and limbs after each sip.

This teaching in Chapter 13 is the basis in the Purāṇas for the daily purification of the brāhmaṇa householder. (Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 13)

More rules of āśauca (Chapter 14)

Chapter 14 gives further rules and exceptions: the conditions under which āśauca is made shorter, and the marks of śuddhi (purity). It teaches that āśauca is a state of the antaḥkaraṇa (the inner instrument, the mind) as much as of the body. The change from āśauca to śuddhi is marked not only by the passing of time but by the true return of the person’s fitness for sacred action. (Madhyama Bhāga, Chapter 14)

Per Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa

Chapter 75 of the second part (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa) gives the āśauca-vidhi, the rules for the time of impurity that comes to a household after a birth or a death. It covers both janana-āśauca (impurity after a birth) and maraṇa-āśauca (impurity after a death).

The teacher Pushkara explains how long āśauca lasts for each varṇa (social class), what may not be done during it, and how the family is purified when it ends.

What Āśauca Is

Āśauca settles on a household at the two great turning points of life, birth and death. These are the two biggest breaks in ordinary life: a new person comes into the world, or a person leaves it. Both events disturb the subtle balance of dharma in the home. During āśauca the household cannot carry out its normal sacred acts. Yajña (fire offering), offerings to the devas and some social duties are set aside until the period ends and purification is done.

Āśauca is not a punishment or a mark of shame. It is an honest recognition of the deep reality of what has happened. The household stands, in a sense, at a threshold, between one ordinary state and the next. The time of āśauca gives room for this change to complete itself.

Maraṇa-Āśauca (Impurity after a Death)

How long it lasts, by varṇa:

• Brāhmaṇa: 10 days
• Kshatriya: 12 days
• Vaiśya: 15 days
• Śūdra: 30 days

The different lengths reflect the different levels of ritual and social duty expected of each varṇa. Brāhmaṇas must return to their sacred duties (yajñas and svādhyāya, Vedic recitation) soonest, so their āśauca is the shortest.

Who keeps maraṇa-āśauca: The rules depend on how closely one is related. The closest relatives, the sapiṇḍas (those who share offerings of piṇḍa, rice balls, to the same ancestors in śrāddha), keep the full āśauca. More distant relatives keep shorter and shorter periods.

What is not done during āśauca:

• Fire offerings (homa)
• Receiving food from others in one’s house for the purpose of passing on merit
• Holding or attending weddings and festivals
• For brāhmaṇas, svādhyāya (Vedic recitation) is set aside
• Touching or entering a temple

Exceptions: Some urgent duties are not stopped by āśauca. A king’s work of ruling does not stop. A soldier in battle keeps fighting. A woman about to give birth may go on receiving help.

Janana-Āśauca (Impurity after a Birth)

Birth-impurity is lighter than death-impurity and shorter:

• Brāhmaṇa household: 10 days (the same as for a death)
• Kshatriya: 12 days
• Vaiśya: 15 days
• Śūdra: 30 days

Who keeps it: The mother, the father and the close relatives in the household.

Special rule for the mother: The mother is in āśauca for forty days after giving birth, whatever her varṇa. This longer time reflects the bodily and inner recovery she needs. During this time she does not do formal pūjā, but Vishṇu-smaraṇa (remembering Bhagavān Vishṇu in the mind) is always allowed.

Purification at the End of Āśauca

The end of āśauca is marked by a formal purification:

• The household members bathe.
• The house is cleaned with water mixed with cow dung (gomayana).
• The family purohita (family priest) performs a purifying homa, the śānti-homa.
• The family’s devatā (the family’s own form of the divine) receives pūjā once more. This renewed bond with the divine shows that the time at the threshold is over.
• After a death, a śrāddha (rite for the departed) completes the passage.

Āśauca and the ātmā

Pushkara ends with a deeper teaching that links to the bāndhava-samāśvāsana (the comforting of relatives) taught in Chapter 78. The time of āśauca gives the family space to live through their grief. Then, through the rites, they come to see that the one who has gone has not been destroyed. The ātmā (soul) is eternal; only the body has died. The śrāddha done at the end of āśauca helps the ātmā on its journey, and shows the family’s love reaching across the line of death.

Per Vāmana Purāṇa

The Vāmana Purāṇa gives the rules of āśauca in the teaching of the maharshis of the Magadha forest to the rākshasa king Sukeśī, which Pulastya Maharshi tells to Nārada Maharshi.

Rites during āśauca

During jātāśauca (impurity at a birth) and mṛtāśauca (impurity at a death), the nitya (daily) rites may be set aside, but the naimittika (occasional) karmas must never be given up in any circumstance. As soon as a son is born, the father must take a bath with his clothes on (sacela snāna). If anyone in the family dies, all the kinsmen must bathe: this is the word of Bhṛgu Maharshi.

Cremation and the gathering of the bones

The dead person is cremated far outside the house, and those of the same gotra offer water (jala-tarpaṇa). The bones are gathered (asthi-sañcayana) on the first, the fourth or the seventh day; after that all the brothers touch their own limbs. The sapiṇḍas, once they are pure, perform the śrāddha.

Immediate purity and the periods of impurity

When death comes by poison, by hanging, by weapons, by fire, by drowning or by a fall from a height; when children or sannyāsīs die; or when one who has gone to another country dies, the four kinds of immediate purity (sadyaḥ-śuddhi) are taught. The same holds for a miscarriage. For others, purity comes only at the end of the period of impurity: one day for brāhmaṇas, three days for kshatriyas, six days for vaiśyas and twelve days for śūdras. All these jātis, each by its own ācāra, perform the śrāddhas on the tenth, twelfth and fifteenth days.

The rites for the departed

For the dead the ekoddishṭa rite is done according to the vidhi, and at the end of the year the sapiṇḍīkaraṇa. Once the departed is freed from the state of a preta and has become a pitṛ, one should perform the rites the Veda enjoins and offer tarpaṇa. For the pitṛs to rise to ever higher states, one should give gifts such as gold; and whatever the pitṛs loved in their lifetime, if those very things are given in dāna, the pitṛs gain imperishable worlds.

Source: Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 15

Sources

• Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapters 157–159
• Garuḍa Mahāpurāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Adhyāya (Chapter) 106
• Garuḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 222 (also Chapters 106–107 and Chapter 128, named in the text)
• Garuḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Dharma Khaṇḍa, Chapter 5
• Brahmāṇḍa Mahā Purāṇa, Madhyama Bhāga, Chapters 12–14
• Vishṇu Dharmottara Purāṇa, Uttarārdha (Dvitīya Khaṇḍa), Chapter 75
• Vāmana Purāṇa, Chapter 15