14 - Directions Regarding Dharma and Propitiatory rites

The present chapter is a complete, practically word to word, incorporation of the Laghu Yama Smruti (LYS) with some parallel verses from the Yama Smruti. The difference between NP and LYS is that in the NP., the narrator of the dharmas or to be more accurate, the expiatory penances for different sins, is Dharma-råja, the god of Death, but in LYS, Yama is a sage, a Law-giver and the object of LYS is proclamation of different expiatory rites for different kinds of sins (nånavidha-prāyaśhchitta-varnanam). 

It is beyond the scope of the present note to explain the concept of sin which has been adequately discussed in Hasting’s Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics (Vol. XI. vide ‘sin’). It shows that the concept of sin varies from religion to religion, region to region and age to age. The use of words like ågas, agha, drugdha, enas, amhas, durita, in the Rugveda shows that the concept of sin was already developed in those times (also vide A.B. Keith The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads 245-9, 264-8, 310-12, etc.) 

The words prāyashchitti and prayaschitta stand for the act of expiation and are found since the Vedic period. It is, however, the latter form (präyaśhchitta) which gained popularity and is widely used in the Dharma-śhästra literature (in Smrutis, purānas, etc.). The word prāyaśhchitta is variously defined-the most popular connotation is “that whereby the chitta (the mind) of the repentant is generally (prāyah) free (from the oppressive sense of guilt) by the parşhad (assembly of Brahmaņa panditas). 

Priyashash cha samam chittaṁ charayitvå pradīyate |

Parshadā kāryate yat tu prāyaśhchillam iti smrutam||

(a Smruti quotation in Paráshara Madhava II.1.p.3) 

The idea that a sin can be wiped out by Prayaśhchitta gave rise to a vast literature from the time of Dharmasūtras down to the medicval nibandha-karas (writers on Dharma-shästra). Gautama and Vasishtha in their Dharma-sūtras, Manu Smr. XI.44-265, Yajnavalkya Smr. III 205-327, (LYS or the present chapter already mentioned), Bruhad-Yama Smr. 182 verses, AP. ch.s 168-74; KP.Uttarardha 30-34 to mention a few, deal with these expiatory penances.

Dharmarāja said:

1. I am now expounding the holy dharma proclaimed in the Vedas and the Smruti-texts with reference to the different castes in a serial order, O best of kings. Please listen to it with great attention. 

2. I shall mention the atonement to the person who, while taking food, touches an impure or a fallen person or a Chândāla, either out of anger or due to ignorance.² 

2. The theory of untouchability though not satisfactorily traceable to the Vedas, came to be accepted by the time of Smrutis and Puranas. And it did not depend on birth alone. 

The idea is that by taking bath one washes off symbolically, the mental pollution caused by the touch of certain men connected with unclean vocations, holders of anti-Vedic views (like Bauddhas, Chårvākas, etc.), extra-Indian invaders (like Turuşhkas), uncultured hill-tribes, a woman in menses or immediately after delivery, corpses, unclean animals like pigs, dogs etc. Man has practised against man unjustifiable discriminations like residential segregation, exclusion from public institutions, disenfranchisernent, etc. all over the world, including advanced western societies. This is not to defend the Puranic statements about expiation, but to put them into proper historical perspective. 

3. Such a person shall perform bath three times a day (trishavaņa snana) either for three days or for six days. A Brahmaņa becomes pure by sipping pañcha-gavya (the five products of the cow taking collectively, viz. milk, curds, clarificd butter, urine and cowdung). 

4. Some times fecal matter may trickle down through the anus of a Brähmaņa as he takes food. I shall tell you the means of purification in that case. I shall also mention the means of purification when he is defiled by eating the remnants of food (ucchishta) or through some other cause. 

5. The Brahmana shall at the outset perform the shaucha (cleansing his hind part). Afterwards he shall perform the achamana rite (sipping of water with names of Vişhņu at each sip). He shall then observe a fast for a day and night. He then becomes pure after taking in the pañchagavya. 

6. If a person passes urine while swallowing food or if one passes urine (immediately) after taking food, he shall observe fast for a day and night. He shall then perform the Homa, offering oblations of ghee into the fire. 

7. If a Brāhmaṇa were to become impure at the time of taking food, he shall place that mouthful of food somewhere on the ground, and take his bath, after which he shall attain, purity. 

8. If he happens to eat that mouthful, he becomes pure only by observing a fast. If he takes the entire food in his impure condition, he shall be impure for three days. 

9. If while taking food, and vomits, he should repeat the Gayatri Mantra three hundred times, if he is sick, or three thousand times if normal in health. Repetition of the Gayatri Mantra is the greatest expiation. 

10-12a. When a Brahmana is touched by Chåndālas and the pariah (those who cook and eat dog’s flesh) or when he answers calls of nature (of urinations and evacuations of bowels), he shall repeat the Gayatri Mantra for three days. One who is defiled by partaking the ucchishta food, after taking food, shall repeat the Gayatri Mantra for six days. If a person born in the lowest caste touches a woman in her menses or one who has given birth to a child (during the period while she is regarded impure), the purity of the woman touched, is regained in three days—so says Shātā tapa.³ 

3. Shatatapa–N. of a Smruti-writer. This quotation however could not be traced in the Shätätapa Smr. (Gurumandal Edt.) These verses have been quoted from LYS.

12b-13a. If a woman in her menses is touched by dogs, or by a man of the lowest caste or a barbarian or by a crow, she shall observe fast and remain clean. By taking her bath at the proper time, she becomes pure. 

13b-14. If two women in their menses per chance touch each other, they become pure by observing Brahma-kūrcha (a penance in which the woman is to fast for twenty-four hours, then sip Pañchagavya for purification). If a person is touched by a person defiled by eating ucсhista and fails to take bath immediately thereafter, he is also purified by Brahma-kūrcha.⁴ 

4. Brahma-kurcha 

Normally this expiatory rite is enjoined to a man. Such a man is to observe a fast for the whole day and night on a day (particularly on a full moon day) and then drink Panchagavya, the next morning 

ahoråtroşhito bhütvå paurnamāsyam visheşhataḥ| Panchagavyam pibet pratar brahmak ürchavidhih smrutah||

-Jäbāla quoted in Prayaśhchitta Viveka, p. 515.

But in taking the separate ingredients of Panchagavya, the man has to consecrate them with Vedic mantras and utter those mantras (such as the Gāyatri) while taking them in (samantrakaṁ samyujya samantrakam eva panchagavyam pīvate tada brahma-kūrcha ityākhyāyate-Mitākşhară on Yäji Smr. III.314). Women were not eligible to utter vedic mantras. Hence, here a twentyfour hours fast broken by sips of Panchagavya scem to be implied, as women are treated as Shūdras (being ineligible to utter Vedic mantras), and shūdras were allowed to take Panchagavya without Vedic mantras. 

Strinām chaiva tu šhūdrānām patitānam tathaiva cha | Panchagavyam....datavyam mantra-varjitam||

-Devala Smr. 61

also vide Parāśhara Smr. XI.3 & 27.

15. If a person indulges in sexual intercourse during the prescribed nights after the menses and if conception is suspected, he shall take bath. If he cohabits with his wife on nights other than the prescribed ones, the purificatory rite is the same as in the case of urination or evacuation of the bowels. 

16. Both husband and wife, if united in the act of sexual intercourse, become unclean. As soon as the woman gets up from the bed, she becomes pure, but the man remains unclean. 

17. If, out of wickedness, a woman does not render physical service to her husband, she must be punished by abandoning her for twelve years, without giving her financial assistance. 

18. Persons forsaking their kinsmen who are fallen, shall be punished with Uttama-sähasa⁵ (the highest monetary fine viz. one thousand Panas). Only the father may be considered as fallen but never the mother. 

5. Uttama-sähasa 

Närada defincs såhasa as an offence committed out of pride for one’s strength (sahas-strength) 

sahaså kriyate karma yat kischid bala-darupitaih|

tat sähasam iti proktam saho balam ihochyate ||

He divides sähasa into three categories:

(1) Prathama (2) Madhyama and (3) Uttama.

The last includes offences like killing by poison or weapons and rapes on another persons’ wives (XIV.5) and the punishment for this is death, confiscation of property, expulsion, amputation of the organ (XIV.7) and even if the offender survives, he was to be excommunicated (XIV.10). Manu and Vişhņu lay down the highest fine. Thus for idol-breaking the king is to fine the culprit 500 Panas and make him re-instate it at his cost (Manu IX.285). 

As the LYS. verse 19 shows the text of the NP. here should be emended as tyajantyo’ patitän as the original tyajantyo patitān makes no sense. For according to Dharmaśhāstra, a fallen relative (even one’s own father and never the mother as stated in the next line) is to be abandoned.

19. If a man attempts to commit suicide by hanging himself with a rope, etc., he shall be fined two hundred Panas, if he does not die. If he dies he (i.e. his body) must be besmeared with materials (like ghee) which are considered holy for sacrificial oblations. 

20. His friends and sons should be fined one paņa each. Thereafter, they shall perform expiatory rites as prescribed in the scriptures. 

21-22. Those who intend to give up their bodies but turn back from water, fire, halter (by means of which they wanted to commit suicide), those, who revert from the stage of sannyasa and those who are thus fallen from (accomplishing their death) by means of observing fast or from taking poison or from jumping down from precipice and those who desire to kill themselves with a weapon but are not killed) these Pratyavasitas⁶ (fallen-reversionists) are beyond the commerce or contact of the public and they become pure by the observance of Chândrāyaṇa⁷ penance or two Tapta-Krucchras. ⁶

6. Pratyavasita 

In ancient India, the right of death, civil or physical was exercised by persons who wanted to free themselves from worldly life by adopting sannyasa-aśhrama or by giving up their life by fast, drowning in water, self-immolation, etc. But persons who declared their desire to renounce life, were to shrink back at the last stage or revert from sannyasa to the householder’s stage of life, they were called pratyavasita. The text hereof which is a quotation from LYS. 22 & 23 (and Bruhad Yama Smr, verses 3 & 4) classifies the pratyavasitas in categories according to the mode or means they proclaimed to adopt to embrace death.

7. Chandrayana 

This observance is an expiatory penance as well as the means of increasing one’s fund of merits. When it is for expiation of sins, it is to be preceded by tonsure. As the name indicates, any act (here taking in morsels of food) varying directly with the increase or decrease of the digits of the moon is Chandrayana (chandrasyāyanam iväyanaṁ charanam yasmin karmani hräsa-vruddhibhyāṁ tach chändrayanam-Mitakshari on Yaj.Smr.III.323). This is a very ancient type of penance as it is noted by Pāṇini (V.1.72). As Baudhayana (III.8.33) notes it, since ancient times there were two varieties of this Vrata, viz., Yava-madhya (large in the middle and tapering at both the ends like the grain of yava (barley) and pipilika-madhya (slender in the middle like an ant and bigger at the ends). The first (Yava-madhya) type is as follows: 

On the first day of the bright half of the month, one morsel of food is to be taken and the number of morsels are to be increased one per day so that on the full moon day one is to eat fifteen morsels. And in the dark half one morsel per day is to be reduced, till he observes complete fast on the New Moon day. 

In the second variety, the pipilika-madhya, the observer begins on the first day of the dark half of the month and eats 14 morsels till on the New Moon day he observes complete fast and then from the first day of the bright half of the month he goes on increasing his food intake as one, two, three, etc. according to the tithis so that on the full moon day, he cats fifteen morsels. 

Some more varieties are added by later writers on Dharma-shastra. The Chandrayana is prescribed when no other specific penance is prescribed (Yajnavalkya Smr. III.326).

8. tapta-krucchra-dvayena va 

As an alternative to Chandrayana two tapta-krucchra penances are prescribed. Normally this is prescribed for Brahmanas who sell things or animals which should not be sold by them, such as sesame, sesame-oil, curd, salt, cooked food, slaves, etc. There are different views about its observance. Thus, according to Manu XI.214, Shankha Smr. 18.4, Parashara Smr. 18.4 and AP.171.6-7. This penance consists of a period of twelve days comprising four sub-periods of three days each. In this, the penitent has to drink hot water, hot milk, hot ghee for three days each and then for the last subperiod of three days, he is to observe complete fast inhaling hot atmosphere (Hence the adjective tapta in the name of this penance). 

tryaham ushnamn pibed åpas tryaham ushnam payaḥ pibet | tryaham uşhnam ghrutam pitvà váyu-bhakşhi tryaham bhavet ||

-AP. 171.6-7

Manu specifically insists on breathing hot air (XI.215). According to Mitakshara (Yajnavalkya III.317), this duration of 12 days is prescribed for great sins, while that of 4 days, viz., taking in hot milk, ghee and water for the first three days and complete fast in the fourth day is meant for minor sins. 

tapta-kshira-ghrutambünam ekaikam pratyaham pibet | 

eka-råtropavasashcha tapta-krucchras tu pavanaḥ ||

cf. Yajnavalkya Smr. III.317                        -Devala Smr.84.

23. The sinner who reverts from two such attempts (of suicide), becomes fallen. Such a fallen person becomes pure from the dark sin by observing two Chândrāyaṇa penances and by gifting a cow or a bull thereafter. 

24. On being touched by dogs, jackals, monkeys, etc., and by men or women except at the time of sexual act, one shall take bath whether it be day, twilight or night. He becomes pure immediately after the bath. 

25. If anyone inadvertently eats the food of a Chaņdāla, he shall subsist only on food prepared from barley-flour mixed with cow’s urine, for half a month, whereby he becomes pure. 

26. If any twice-born person burns a cowpen or sets the abode of a Brāhmaṇa to fire and if any one cuts off the rope and cremates (without official post-mortem, etc.) the body of a person who died by hanging himself, shall perform expiatory penance called Krucchra. 

27. If anyone knowingly eats the food of Chandālas and Pulkasas (two lowest castes) or kills a woman, he shall expiate himself by performing half a krucchra⁹ penance. If it is done unknowingly, he shall perform two Chandrāyana penances. 

9. Krucchårdham acharet: 

Contact with women of lower castes was strongly condemned as a sin. If the sin is committed unknowingly, the expiation is of a milder nature, viz. Ardha-krucchra, while two Chandrayana penances are prescribed for deliberately committing this sin. Ardha-krucchra is a variety of Krucchra. It is to be observed for six days as follows: Food is to be taken only once at day time for one day, only once in the evening on the second day, taking food for two days without asking for it and complete fast on the last two days. 

Sayam-pratas tathaivekam dina-dvayam ayachitam |

dina-dvayam a náshnīyat krucchrardham tad vidhiyate ||

-Apastamba Smr. IX.41-42.

It is also called pada-krucchra-one fourth of Krucchra penance (Yajnavalkya IX.318)

28-29a. A person who takes food from the Kapalakas¹⁰ (the followers of a forbidden sect), one who indulges in sexual act with their women, a Brahmaņa who co-habits with a forbidden woman, one who takes in wine or eats cow’s meat (beef), shall perform the expiatory penance called Tapta-kṛucchra and the Maurvi-homa¹¹ (the homa performed during the thread ceremony). He, thereby, becomes pure. 

10. Käpälikänna-bhoktrunám is a misprint for Käpälikänna etc. as attested in LYS 29. Kapala or Kapalika is the follower of a Shaiva sect (of the left-hand order) characterised by wearing skulls of men in the form of a garland, and eating and drinking from them. Any contact with them was looked upon with abhorrence and contempt. Hence, this restriction and proposed expiation.

11. Maurvihoma v.l. maunji-homa in LYS.30 is the home (sacrificial rite) performed at the ceremony of the investiture of the sacred thread (upa-nayana). 

29b-30a. Those who commit great sins,¹² particularly the first four, become pure by entering fire or by staying near a great sacrifice. 

12. mahåpåtaka-kartaraḥ 

Those who commit great sins. ‘Great sins’ or Mahapatakas are as follow: (1) Slaying a Brahmana (2) Wine-drinking (3) Theft (4) defiling one’s preceptor’s bed (wife) and (5) association with a person who committed any of the above four sins. 

brahma-hatya Surápánam steyam gurvangana-gamah | mahanti påtakanyahus tat-samsargashcha panchamam ||

-Manu XI.55

In the next chapter (NPI.15.22b and 23a), the above is paraphrased as follows: 

brahmaha cha suräpi cha steyi cha guru-talpagaḥ |

mahäpätakinas tvete tat-samsargi cha pañchamaḥ ||

Later on, what acts are equivalent to each of these great sins is expounded in the rest of that chapter.

30b-31a. If this is done secretly,¹³ is the man shall, for a period of one month, repeat the Aghamarşhana¹⁴ hymn while standing in the water. He will thereby become pure. 

13. rahasya-karano: 

Probably a misprint for rahasya-karane as ‘attested in LYS 32.

14. aghamarshana-sūktam: 

RV.X.190 is regarded as an expiatory Sūkta for washing out sins.

31b-33a. The following seven castes are regarded as the lowest born (Antyajas),¹⁵ viz., the washerman, the leather-worker (cobbler and the shoe-maker), the dancer or actor, the worker in bamboos (Buruda), the sweeper (Medas), the fisher-men, and the Bhillas. He who knowingly takes the food from these or cohabits with their women or drinks their beverages or accepts monetary gift from them, shall perform a half-krucchra penance. If these things are done unwittingly, he shall perform two Chandrāyana penances. 

15. rajakaśh charmakärashcha saptaite’ntyajāḥ smrutaḥ|

The term antyaja connotes lowest castes like Chåndalas (vide Manu IV.61). Different lists of “low castes” are found in Smrutis but this verse is found in Atri 199 and is attributed to Apastamba in Mitakshară. The low castes enumerated above are as follows: (1) rajaka (washerman), charma-kára (artisan in hides), nata (acrobats like Kolhatis in Maharashtra), buruda (worker in bamboos) Kaivarta (fishermen), meda (sweepers) and bhilla. According to Shudra kamalakara meads are sweepers. 

It is noteworthy that in the medieval India, guilds of some of these had risen in social status. Works like Vira-mitrodaya (Vyavahara, p. 12) testify to the verticle social mobility in Hindu society.

33b-34a. If one has sexual intercourse with one’s mother, preceptor’s wife, daughter, sister or daughter-in-law, one shall enter fire.¹⁶ No other purificatory rite is enjoined (for such sins). 

16. These are ati-patakas for which there is no expiation except self-immolation in fire.

34b-35a. If one cohabits with the queen, an ascetic woman or one’s own nurse or a woman of a higher caste or of one’s own Gotra, one shall undergo two kruchra penances.¹⁷ The sin is the same whether these ladies belong to one’s father’s gotra or the mother’s gotra. 

17. Krucchra-dvaya: 

Two Krucchra penances. Krucchra is a general term for different penances. From Sama-vidhana Brahmana, (1.2.1-4), Gautama (26.1-6) and Apastamba, (1.9.27.7) it seems to be a penance of 12 days duration. In this, the penitent is to eat sacrificial food for three days by day only (fasting at night), then for the next three days he is to fast during day time and eat at night only. Then for the next three days, he should eat when (sacrificial) food is offered to him, without his asking for it, and then should observe complete fast on the last three days. 

athatas trin krucchrän vyākhyāsyāmaḥ |

havishyan tryaham anaktāshyadivashi, tatas tryaham tryaham

ayāchita-vratas tryaham näśhnåti kinchaneti kruccha-dvádasharátrasya vidhih |

-Apastamba Dh. Sūtra 1.9.27.7

36-37a. If one cohabits with another man’s wife he shall perform the krucchrārdha or the Säntapana¹⁸ expiatory penance. Brāhmaṇas dispell the sin caused by the carnal approach to a prostitute, in a similar manner, by drinking for five nights water containing Kućha grass which is extremely heated but once (?). 

18. Kruchrardham tapanam but LYS 37 reads Krucchram Säntapanam. 

Santapana, Maha-Santapana, Ati-Säntapana are penances of the same category in which the duration is different but subsistence on the cow’s urine, dung, milk, curds, ghee and Kusha water interspersed with complete fasts are the common factors. Thus, according to Bruhad-Yama Smr I.13 (Manu XI.213), Santapana lasts for two days. On the first day, the penitent drinks the above ingredients and on the next day observes complete fast. 

go-mūtram gomayam kşhīram dadhi-sarpih kushodakam |

ekaråtropavāsashcha krucchram santapanam smrutam ||

For Maha-santapana, the observer drinks separately for six days in succession, the above six ingredients and observes a fast on the seventh day (Devala 82, Atri 118-119). Yama proclaims Maha-santapana for fifteen days, when each of the ingredients (cow’s urine, dung, etc.) are taken as food for three days consecutively. AP. 171.8-10 proclaims Mahasantapana as lasting for 18 days and also of 21 days. 

Krucchrä’ tikrucchrapayasā divasanam ekavimshatim|

tryahābhyastam athaikekam atisantapanam smrutam ||

37b-38a. A Brāhmaṇa who commits the sin of defiling the preceptor’s bed, shall perform the Vrata in accordance with scriptural injunctions. Some recommend (this punishment) to one who kills a cow or to a religious student who violates the vow of continence.¹⁹ 

19. Avakirninah- 

Avakirnin-a religious student who has committed an act of incontinence (such as sexual intercourse) against his vow of celibacy. For his donkey-like act he was to expiate by offering an ass to Nairruti (Yajnavalkya II, 280) Manu XI. 123-24 however calls upon such a sinner to put on a donkey-hide, and beg for food in seven houses proclaiming his violation of oath.

38b-39a. He who makes a cow fall down by beating it with a stick, shall perform the expiatory penance called Go-vrata²⁰ twice. 

20. Go-vrata: 

The observance to stay among cows, act like them, bathe in cow’s urine and subsist on cow-dung. The observer is not to sit, eat or drink unless cows have done so. The duration of this observance is one month. 

39b-40a. A stick as stout as the thumb, as long as an arm, not dry and having leaves, is called a Go-danda, a stick for beating a cow). 

40b-41a. If the cows are made to fall and those cows are pregnant, one shall perform the Krucchra penance (one per life harmed). This is the atonement for the slaughter of a cow. 

41b-42a. If a cow dies when it is being bound or restrained or when its sickness is aggravated, he is smeared with the cause of that sin. 

42b-44a. There is no need for any expiation, if the cow, after having fallen or having become unconscious when struck with a stick, gets up and walks six or seven, five or ten steps, or takes a mouthful of grass, or drinks water. Similarly, when the cow dies of sickness, there is no expiation. 

44b-46a. If cows are struck and killed with a piece of wood,) a lump of clay or a stone, the expiatory penances are as follows according to respective implement (of striking). If they are killed with a piece of wood, the expiation called Sāntapana is to be performed. If they are killed with lumps of clay, Präjāpatya²¹ expiatory rite is to be performed. If they are killed with stones, Tapta-krucchra penance is to be performed. If they are killed with any other weapon, the expiatory penance called Atikrucchra is to be undergone. 

21. Prajapatya is a Krucchra penance when the noun Krucchra is not qualified by any adjective like ati-, tapta-, maha- etc. (Smruti-shåstreshu nirupa-padasya krucchra Shabdasya prajapatya eva práchuryera prayogåt, krucchram iti prajapatyam iti Devala smaranách cha. 

The duration of this penance is twelve days or consecutive four periods each of three days, in which there is respectively (i) eating once by day (and fast at night), (ii) eating once by night only, (iii) eating once only unsought for (sacrificial) food and (iv) complete fast for the last three days: 

tryaham pråtas tryaham sáyam tryaham adyad ayáchitam |

tryaham param cha na’śhniyat Prajapatyam charan dvijaḥ ||

Manu XI.212

There are three more varieties or permutations of this penance.

46b-47a. One should give medicines, oils and ghee, and regular food to cows and Brāhmaṇas. If, while these are being given, any mishap takes place, there is no need for any atonement. 

47b-48a. There is no atonement necessary (if any calamity befalls) while drinking the oil or the medicine or while eating solid medicines or during the process of (surgically) removing a thorn or a splinter or any extraneous substance lodged in a body. 

48b-49a. When the calves are tied up with ropes round their neck for the purpose of administering any medicines, there is no need of any expiation. If cows and calves are restrained²² or bound and shut up in the evening for the sake of protection, there is no blemish, or sin. 

22. Rosha-bandhayoh a misprint for rodha-bandhayoḥ, vide LYS.52. 

49b-50a. When the penance is prescribed, the steps in tonsure are: one-fourth of the hair is to be removed first; in the second stage mustaches are removed; in the third stage all the hair except the tuft of ‘hair is to be cut. (In the case of full penance) all hairs are to be cut off. 

50b-51a. (In the case of women) all the hair of the head should be held up and only the tresses upto two angulas are to be cut off.²³ This is proclaimed as the tonsure of head in the case of women, in the Smrutis. 

23. This is the practice for Veni-dana (giving of tresses) of women. It seems that complete tonsure of women (whose husbands are alive) practised at Tirupati (Andhra Pradesh), is not taken into account or that custom might have come into vogue in the post-NP. period.

51b-52a. Shaving of the head is not to be practised in the case of women nor should they sit in the Virasana pose. They should not be made to reside in the cowpens nor are they to observe the vrata of following the cow.²⁴ 

24. This shows that women were probably exempted from Go-vrata.

52b-53a. The king or the prince or a Brāhmaṇa who is well read in Shastras shall order them to undergo expiatory penance without removing the hair from their head (tonsure is essential in the case of men before such expiations). 

53b-54. He should enjoin twice the expiatory observance for the preservation of their hair, and if twice the number of expiatory penances are performed, dakshina for the same should be double. 

55a. (In case double dakshiņā is not given and the hair of the head are preserved) the sin of the killer is not dispelled; and the giver of such a dakshiņā goes to hell.²⁵ 

25. The line papaṁ na kshiyate hantur data cha narakan vrajet by itself is incomplete and cannot be construed with 55b which is connected with 56a. The LYS 58a supplies the missing line which runs as follows: 

dviguņam chenna dattam cha keśhaniśhcha pari-rakşhayet |

To which in natural sequence runs NP I.14.55a quoted above (=LYS 58b).

55b-56a. Those who lay down expiatory penances not enjoined in the Vedas or Smrutis are the obstructers of dharma. The king should duly punish them. 

56b-57a. But the king shall not infict pain on them or harass them being deluded by passion. Their sin will increase hundred-fold and envelop him only. 

57b-58a. After the expiatory penance has been completely performed he (the ex-sinner) shall feed Bråhmaņas and give them twenty cows and one bull as a dakshina. 

58b-59a. If the cows, etc. are affected by worms born in festering wounds and infested by flies,²⁶ he should undergo the expiatory penance called Krucchrärudha and give dakshina according to his capacity. 

26. Krimibhis trunasambhutair—a misprint for Krumibhir vrana-sambhūtair vide LYS. 62.

59b-60a. After performing the expiatory rites and feeding excellent Brahmaņas, he should give them a Mänika *27 (a weight of gold). Then they shall gain purity. 

* Mánika is a misprint for Maşhaka found in the Laghu Yama Smruti verse 63 from which the quotation is taken here. Māshaka - weight of 8 Gunja seeds. 

27. Suvarna-manikam a misprint for suvarnamaşhaka vide LYS. 63. måşhaka-awt. of gold variously equated with the weight of 8 or 10 gunja seeds.

60b-6la. If one is touched by persons belonging to Chandala and Shvapacha castes, ablution (for purification) is enjoined even at night, but he shall not stay there with those low castes, at night, he will regain purity immediately after taking bath. 

616-62a. If unknowingly a person had been careless enough to stay there (with low castes) at night, his sin is increased a hundred-fold. 

62b-63a. On being touched by the rays of the stars that rise and planets that are above, he shall perform ablution in water. 

63b-64a. Earth of the following seven types shall not be taken: that which is within the water, that from an anthill, that from the rats’ hole, that from a barren land, that from the main highway, that from the cremation ground and that which is left after the purificative rite (after the nature’s call) has been performed. 

64b-65a. Ishta and Pūrta rites²⁸ shall be performed by a Brāhmaṇa assiduously. Through the Ishta rite one attains heaven and through the Pūrta rites one attains Mokșha. 

28. Ishtapurta 

We have previously noted the evolution of the concept ishtăpūrta since the Vedic period. Here two puranic difinitions are quoted: 

Ishta consists of maintenance of sacred fire, performance of penance, truthfulness, Vedic studies, honouring a guest and performance of vaišhvadeva, while Purta includes dedication of tanks, wells, temples, maintenance of centres of free food distribution, and of public gardens. Ishta leads to the celestial region. while Purta, to Moksha. 

vāpi-kūpa-tadāgāni devatāyatanāni cha |

anna-pradanam aramaḥ purtam dharmań cha muktidam || agnihotram tapah satyam Vedanan chanupålanam |

atithyam vaishvadevan cha prahur ishtan cha nákadam ||

AP. 209.2-3.

Atri Smr. 43-44 are the same as the above verses. As already noted NP. implies the same by this term.

65b-66a. Ishta (performance of sacrifices, etc.,) is dependant on the expenditure of money.²⁹ Parta includes (works of public welfare such as) the digging of tanks, etc. 

29. Vittakshepo in NP. a misprint for vittåpekşham vide LYS 69.

66b-67a. He who repairs and maintains parks, temples, wells, tanks, lakes and particularly procession with idols of gods attains the benefit of Pūrta dharma mentioned before. 

67b-68. (In the preparation of Pañchagavya³⁰ the following ingredients should be taken). The urine of the white cow should be collected; similarly, the dung of the black cow; the milk of the copper-coloured cow should be taken; for curds, the milk of a white cow, and for ghee, the milk of a tawny-coloured cow should be taken. All these are destructive of great sins. 

30. The colours of cows from whom urine, dung, milk, etc. are to be obtained for preparing pancha-gavya are differently given in some smrutis. For example, Parashara proclaims that the urine, dung, milk, curd and ghee should be of Cows respectively of dark, white, copper-like, dark-red and tawny colour: 

go-mutram krishna-varnayaḥ shvetaya gomayam haret |

payaśhchá tamra-varnáya raktaya dadhi cho’chyate ||

69-70a. All these articles (should be purified) separately by means of Kušha grass and the holy water of the sacred rivers. They should be drawn up and brought while repeating Praņava (the syllable Om), they should be stirred and drunk while repeating the syllable Om.³¹ 

31. The verses in NP, do not clarify the method of preparing pancha-gavya. The following is the method in brief: 

“According to Atri.299 dung, urine, ghee and milk were to be respectively 1, 2, 4 and 8 parts and curds also 8 parts. When mixing the ingredients, urine is taken with sacred Gayatri, cowdung with gandha-dväram (Tai.Ar.X.1), milk with apyayasva (RV.1.91.16), curds with dadhikrävno (RV.IV.39.6), ghee with tejosi shukram (Våjasaneyi Samh. 22.1) and Kušha water with devasya två (Ait. Bra 37.3). The pancha-gavya thus prepared is to be placed near the fire, then it is to be stirred to the accompaniment of apo hi shtha (RV.X.9.1-3) and then with the mantra má nastoke (RV.I.114.8) is to be repeated over it. It may be then offered into fire with green darbhas, not less than seven, to the accompaniment of Irāvati (RV.VII.99.3), idam Vişhnur (RV.I.22.1) ma-nastoke (RV. I.114.8) and the shamvati verse (RV.X.9.4) and then the remainder is to be drunk by the preparer with the verse in Parashara XI.37” 

-Kane Hist. of Dharma Shastra II.ii.p.774.

70b-71a. Water mixed with Kusha grass should be held in a cup of the leaves of the Palasha tree or in an auspicious copper vessel or in a cup of the leaf of a lotus plant or in an earthen vessels³² and then drunk. 

32. This verse properly enumerates the kinds of vessels in which pancha-gavya is to be prepared (vide Parashara Madhava II.1 p.434, where Prajapati is quoted). But here the vessels are to be used for drinking the Kushodaka (water containing Kušha grass). 

It may be noted that pana-bhände is a misprint for parna-bhände vide LYS 74.

71b-72. When one is already defiled by a Sütaka³³ (impurity due to the birth of a child) and another case of Sütaka befalls, there is no fault or defilement of the second Sütaka. One is purified along with the first one. That which is born is purified along with what is born and that which is dead along with what is dead. 

33. Here begins a new topic called Ashaucha-impure state arising on birth (jananāshaucha or sūtaka) and arising out of death (mrutakäshaucha). Verses 71b-72 give the general rule that if both ashauchas are of the same kind, and the second is of the same or of lesser duration than the first, a person gets rid of them both at the end of the first. Nirnaya sindhu (pp.536-540) discusses 12 alternatives of such superventions of Ashaucha, but NP. is not interested in these details.

73. If there is any abortion even in the first month, a three-day pollution is observed. 

74. After observing as many days of pollution as there had been months of pregnancy, in the case of abortion, one gets purified. The chaste lady becomes purified after the monthly course when the flow of blood ceases, and she takes her bath. 

75-76. A woman is separated from her family Gotra after the seventh step (in the Saptapadi) has been taken during the marriage ceremony. Water libations and pinda offering to her should be made in the name of the Gotra of her husband.³⁴ 

34. This explains Vişhnudharma Sūtra: 22.32-33. 

strinäm vivāhaḥ samskäraḥ |

samskrutåsu strişhu nåshaucham bhavati pitru-pakshe |

There is no aśhaucha for the parents on the death of a married woman.

76. The uddeśhya (object in view) in every pinda at the time of offering the pindas should be offering them both in the names (of the husband and the wife) to the six (ancestors, viz., father, grand-father and the great grand-father along with their wives) three pindas should be offered. Thus the person who offers it, does not become deluded. 

77. The mother is fed along with her husband (i.e. the father of the performer of the Shraddha) ³⁵ along with gods, the same way also the grand-mother and the great grand-mother are fed along with their husbands, ³⁶ in the shräddha. 

35. Shraddha, according to Br.P. is whatever is given with faith to Brahmanas for the benefit of our dead ancestors, at the proper time, place and to deserving persons in accordance with the prescribed procedure: Shraddhas have been variously classified. The classification accepted in the NP is: (1) Nitya, (2) Naimittika (3) Kamya (9) Vruddhi and (5) Parvana and the terms have been explained in translation.

36. bharutrå sahasråbdam: 

A misprint for saha shraddham, vide LYS.80. sudaivata is sadaivata in LYS 80.

78. One shall perform the hospitable greeting to one’s father and mother every year. He shall perform a shraddha without reference to the gods and offer one pinda. 

79. There are five types of Shrāddhas which should be known by wise men. They are (1) Nitya (daily and obligatory Pitryajña) (2) Naimittika (occasional, for example after the birth of a son) (3) Kāmya (for attaining desired object e.g. performance of Śhrāddha with Kruttikä or Rohiņi as the constellation of the Moon, for attaining heaven or progeny) (4) Vruddhi Shrāddha (Shraddha performed when something specially noteworthy and beneficial to the family has taken place), and the last one is the (5) Përvana Shraddha i.e. A Shraddha performed on the new moon day or other parvas or festive occasions. 

37. There is a great divergence of views regarding the day of asthi-sanchayana or collection of charred bones of the cremated persons. Thus Gd.P. Preta khanda 5.15 prescribes the 1st, 3rd, 7th or 9th and specially the 4th by twice-born persons, a view endorsed by Vamana P.14.97-98. Here NP. echoes or rather quotes LYS. 87 and 88.

38. Since the Rugveda, water is regarded as ‘great purifier’, Shuchayaḥ pävakah being the favourite phrase of all Vedic seers. Hence, it was offered to the deceased after cremation by any or all sapindas.

39. Cf. Vishnu dharma sütra 23.46 and Apastamba both quoted by Apararka, p. 273.