106 - Teachings of Yajnavalkya

Yajnavalkya said: 

1. O noble Sirs, maintaining Vratas, I shall now describe the Pretashaucha, i.e., the obsequies and the impurity subsequent to the death of persons. If a child who has not completed its two years dies, the corpse is simply buried (not cremated). No Udaka rites (offering of water, etc.) in that case. 

2. The corpse shall be borne upto the cremation ground by kinsmen reciting Yamasukta. For ordinary men ordinary fire may be used. If the dead man is an Ahitagni (person regularly maintaining sacred fires) the same shall be used for cremation. 

3. Kinsmen upto the seventh or tenth degree shall perform Udakakriya facing the south and reciting the mantra apa nah shoshuchadagham¹, etc.

1. RV. 1.97.1.

4. The Udakakriya for maternal grandfather, preceptor and one's own wife is also the same. In the case of sons, friends, sister's sons, father-in-law (all being brahmins) the water is sprinkled once proclaiming the name of the dead man and his Gotra but otherwise remaining silent. 

5. No water-offering is made to the heretics, sinful persons, Vratyas (persons not duly invested with sacred thread, etc. Brahmacharins, and wives without fidelity. 

6. Those addicted to drinking of wine and those who had committed suicide need not be honoured with the water offering or observation of Ashaucha. A dead man shall not be bewailed after the water-offering. Indeed, the existence of all living beings in the world is never permanent. 

7-8. All rites are to be performed upto the utmost extent of one's ability. Thereafter, they shall proceed homeward. At the door of the stallion, torn leaves of the Nimba² tree (Margosa) shall be strewn. They shall step slowly on a rock first and perform Achamana and touch fire, water, cowdung and white mustard seeds before entering the house formally.

2. Azadirachta indica.

9. Those who have touched the corpse must purify themselves by these rites and the final formal entry into the house. Those who had merely witnessed the rites do not require any formal purificatory rites. They are pure at the close of the rites. Others become pure after bath. They should remain celibate for the next three days. 

10. There should be no cooking of food in the house. They shall take food bought or received from others. They shall sleep on the ground away from one another. To the departed soul a rice-ball (pinda) is given for three days. 

11. Milk and water should be kept in a mud pot out in the open. Sacrificial rites enjoined by the Vedas should also be performed. 

12. If a child dies before cutting its first tooth there is no impurity; if a child dies before the tonsure (cutting of the forelocks) rite is performed, the impurity is for a night only; if a child dies before the sacred thread investiture, the impurity is for three days; thereafter the impurity lasts for ten days. 

13. In brief, the impurity due to death lasts for three or ten days. If two children die not two years old, the impurity is for the mother alone. If two impurities due to birth and death overlap, at the close of the latter, everyone becomes pure. 

14. The impurity due to death has to be observed by the four castes for ten days, twelve days, fifteen days and thirty days respectively. 

15-16. If a girl dies before being given in marriage or a son, a preceptor, a disciple, person continuing Vedic studies, an uncle, a Vedic Scholar, a son not one's own but of the wife who has had intercourse with others, or if an unpopular king dies, the impurity is for a day only. 

17. There is no impurity at all on the death due to king's orders, attack of a cow or a brahmin or due to suicide in secret, or due to poison. 

18-20. On the death of a sacrificer, a person performing Vratas, Brahmacharins, donors and those who have realised Brahman there is no impurity. In the case of those who die at the time of charity, marriage, sacrifice, battle, civic commotion or any other calamity there is no impurity at all. Lapse of time, rites in fire, lump of clay, wind, mind, knowledge austerities, recital of prayers, repentence, fasting-all these are agents for purification. Charity purifies a person committing an unworthy act and the current itself purifies the river. 

21-23. In cases of emergency a brahmin shall pursue a kshatriya’s duties taking part in wars) or a vaishya's activities. But these articles he shall not sell: -Fruits, soma, silk, medicinal creepers, curd, milk, ghee, water, gingelly seeds, cooked rice, mercury, acids and alkalis, honey, lac, requisites of homas, cloth, stone, utensils flowers, vegetables, clay, leather shoes, deer-skin, silk, salt, meat, oil cakes, roots and perfumes. If it is for the purpose of religious observances, some of the articles mentioned above can be sold along with gingelly seeds and grains, 

24. Even in dire necessity a brahmin should not sell salt, etc. He should rather pursue cultivation. Horses should never be sold. 

25. A brahmin oppressed by great poverty shall fast for three days (and approach the king for help). The king on seeing the brahmin devoid of a means of support shall provide him with one.