Manava Dharmashastra 4.201

4.201

nipibaṃtyasmingāvo veti nipānaṃ jalāśayaḥ | sa ca vāpīkūpataḍāgādiḥ | tasmin parakīye pareṇa yadātmārthaṃ kṛtaṃ sarvārthaṃ notsṛṣṭaṃ tatra na kadācitsnāyāt | nityaṃ caṇḍālādisparśane ca naimittikaṃ gharmasvedāpanodārthaṃ ca sarvaṃ snānaṃ pratiṣidhyate | atra vyatikrame doṣamāha | nipānasya yaḥ kartā tasya yatkiṃcidduṣkṛtaṃ tasya kenacidaṃśena bhāgena lipyate sambadhyate | nindārthavādo'yaṃ pratiṣedhaśeṣaḥ |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Nipāna,’— which is etymologically explained as ‘nipibanti asmin,’ or ‘nipibanti asmāt,’ — ‘in which, or from which, people drink,’—means ‘water-reservoir;’ that is, a tank, a well or a tank. And one should never bathe in any such tank as has been dug by another man for his own use, and has not been given away for the benefit of the public.

This forbids all kinds of bathing—(a) the obligatory daily bath, (b) the occasional bath necessitated by the touch of the Cāṇḍāla and such other persons, and (c) the ordinary bath taken for the relieving of heat and perspiration.

The text proceeds to point out the evil arising from the disobedience of the said prohibition he becomes ‘tainted’—contaminated—by a part of such sin as there may be of the person who dug the tank.

This is a deprecatory exaggeration, supplementing the preceding prohibition,—(201)