Manava Dharmashastra 5.140

5.140

parānrācamayataḥ parebhya ācamanaṃ dadata ityarthaḥ | etaduktaṃ bhavati | yaḥ parasmā ācamanaṃ dadāti tasyācamayiturhastādadho'ṅgulivivarebhyaḥ patadbhirudabindubhirbhūmyabhighātotthaiairyadyācamanasya dātuḥ pādau spṛśyete tadā na tairaśucirbhavati | ‘bhaumikai’ryathā'nupahatāyāṃ bhūmau sthitāḥ kāścidudakamātrāḥ śuddhā evaṃ te'pyucchiṣṭā ddhastātpatanta udabindavaḥ | na taiḥ spṛṣṭaḥ aprayataḥ aśuciḥ | paramaṅguṣṭhāya ācamati tena tatsaṃsargo rakṣitavyaḥ anyena ca samīpasthena | pādagrahaṇācca jaṅghādyantasparśī duṣṭa eva |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Helping others to wash,’—i.e. offering water to other persons.

The meaning is as follows When one is pouring water for another person and the latter begins to sip water, if drops of water flowing out from between the fingers of that person happen to fall on the ground and rising from it, touch the feet of the man who is offering the water,—that man is not made impure by them.

‘Those on the ground’.—The drops of water fulling from the hand of the washing person, though unclean, should be regarded to be as clean as small quantities of water collected on clean ground.

‘By them,’— touched, the man does not become impure.—(140)