Manava Dharmashastra 2.187

2.187

agnīndhanabhaikṣacaraṇe nairantaryeṇa saptarātraṃ saptāhmakṛtvā | anāturaḥ avyādhitaḥ san avakīrṇivrataṃ nāma prāyaścittamekādaśe (ślo0 118) vakṣyamāṇasvarūpaṃ caretkuryāt | doṣagurutvakhyāpanārthaṃ, na tvetadatra prāyaścittameva | smṛtyantare hyatrālapamanyatprāyaścittamuktam, 'ājyahomaḥ saviturvā retasyāsyām' iti | ihāpi ca liṅgaṃ—yadi prāyaścittamidamabhaviṣyattadā strīgamanamivāvakīrṇiprāyaścittaprakaraṇe nimittatvenāpaṭhiṣyata | ye tu vyācakṣate “saptarātrametadubhayamavaśyakartavyam | akaraṇāttatra doṣaḥ | kṛtasaptarātrasya tu parato'kriyāyāṃ na doṣaḥ | tāni ca saptāhāni prāthamyādupa nayanātprabhṛti gṛhyante”—tadetadayuktam 'ā samāvartanātkuryāditi' virodhāt, uparitanānantaraślokavirodhācca |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘He who, for seven days’—consecutively, ‘has omitted to beg alms and to offer fuel to the Fire,—without being ill’—while not suffering from any disease,—‘shall perform the rites prescribed for the Anakīrṇin’;—i.e., the expiatory rite the exact form of which is going to he described in Chap. 11?. (verse 118).

This is said here only for the purpose of showing the gravity of the offence; and it does not mean that the rite mentioned is to he actually performed in expiation of the omission. That this is so is shown by the fact that another Smṛti has laid down a much simpler expiation for this omission, viz.: ‘offering of clarified butter, etc.’ The following fact also is another indicative of the same conclusion:—If what is mentioned here were a real expiatory rite, then on the occasion of mentioning the conditions under which the ‘Amkīrṇin-rite’ are to be performed as an expiatory rite, the author would have mentioned these omissions also, in the same way in which he has mentioned ‘sexual intercourse with women.’

Some people interpret this verse to means as follows:—“It is necessary to do the two acts (of begging alms and offering fuel) for seven days only; having done them for seven days, if one drops them, there is no harm in this; and these seven days are to be the first ones after Upanayana.”

This however is not right; as it would lie in direct contravention to the direction that ‘this should be done till the Final Return from the teacher’s house,’—as also to what follows in the next verse.—(187)