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Translation of Apastambasmriti (Āpastambasmṛti)

Language: English
Extent: 213 passages, 5,585 words
Text: complete digital text
Source: pramana-mt · Machine translation by Gemini 3.8 Flash (2026-10-06 – 2026-10-21) of in.niti.dharma.upasmrti.apastamba · Machine output without human authorship: no copyright is claimed (CC0 1.0). The original text keeps its own…

0 Front matter — 1 part
1 — 34 parts
2 — 14 parts
3 — 12 parts
4 — 12 parts
5 — 14 parts
6 — 10 parts
7 — 23 parts
8 — 20 parts
9 — 43 parts
10 — 16 parts

Text

0.p1

The Āpastambasmṛti.
Homage to holy Gaṇeśa.

Now begins the description of the penance in matters of confining cattle and so forth, and in cow-killing:
I shall proclaim the determination of penance according to Āpastamba,
for the benefit of the social classes that have become corrupted, in due succession.

1.2

Turned away from censuring others, the best of ṛṣis,
sitting in a secluded place, devoted to knowledge of the Self,

1.3

single-minded, tranquil, abiding in goodness, supreme among knowers of yoga—
to that sage Āpastamba, all the ascetics approached and said:

1.4

"O venerable one, when all men, even when established on a bad path,
perform the duties of dharma, tell us the expiation for them.

1.5

Because a householder must necessarily undertake the protection of cattle and the like,
and agricultural work and so forth, as well as inviting twice-born men during misfortunes,

1.6

and medicine must necessarily be given to Brahmins and others in helplessness,
and the protection of children, such as giving them breast-milk, must be performed—

1.7

if, when doing so, some negligence should somehow occur unintentionally
with regard to cattle and the like, then tell us, O venerable one, the expiation."

1.8

Thus addressed, having meditated for a moment, his face lowered in humility,
and looking at the ṛṣis, Āpastamba spoke this well-ascertained [word]:

1.9

"There is no fault in the matter of nursing children and the like,
nor even in misfortune, regarding the invitation and medical treatment of Brahmins.

1.10

I shall proclaim the penance regarding cattle and the like in sickness and so forth.
Some say there is no fault in medicine given to sustain the body.

1.11

Medicine, salt, the feeding of oil, nourishing food, and boiled rice,
for the sake of sustaining the life of living beings—no penance is prescribed [if harm ensues].

1.12

An excessive amount should not be given; one should cause a small amount to be given at the proper time.
If they perish when an excess was given, a kṛcchra penance is indeed prescribed.

1.13

A quarter [penance] is from fasting for three days, and a quarter is unasked food for three days;
a quarter is [eating only in] the evening for three days, and likewise a quarter is eating what is offered for three days.

1.14

Morning, evening, and half a day; three quarters without the evening.

1.15

A Śūdra should perform a quarter; in the morning, one should assign [eating in the] evening to a Vaiśya,
unasked food to a Kṣatriya, and a period of three nights [of fasting] to a Brahmin.

1.16

One should perform one quarter for confining; one should perform two quarters for tying up;
and three quarters for yoking; one should perform the whole [penance] for causing death.

1.17

When a cow perishes through the fault of a bell ornament,
one should perform half a vow in that case, for that was done for the sake of ornamentation.

1.18

In taming, or in confining, and in a herd, or in yoking,
if it dies by post, chain, or ropes, one should perform three quarters.

1.19

Those who by stones, or by clubs, or by another weapon with force
strike down cattle, the whole [penance] is prescribed for them.

1.20

A Brahmin should perform a prājāpatya penance; a Kṣatriya should perform three quarters;
a Vaiśya should perform half a kṛcchra penance; one should assign a quarter to a Śūdra.

1.21

For two months one should give [all milk] to the calf; for two months one should milk two teats;
for two months at one time [of day]; at other times according to desire.

1.22

Where a cow perishes within ten nights or half a month [after an injury],
one should perform a prājāpatya penance, having shaved including the topknot.

1.23

A plough of eight oxen is righteous; of six oxen is for those desiring a livelihood;
of four oxen is for the cruel; and of two oxen is for those who desire to kill.

1.24

By overloading, by excessive milking, and likewise by piercing the nostrils,
or if it dies when trapped in a river or a mountain, one should perform three quarters.

1.25

Neither with coconut fibres, nor with muñja grass, nor with leather—
one should not bind cattle with these; having bound them [with these], one becomes subject to another [in guilt].

1.26

One should bind an ox facing south with kuśa and kāśa grasses.
In faults involving fire attached to the feet, no penance is prescribed.

1.27

When many perish in confining or also in tying up,
and in the false treatment of a physician, one should perform double the cow penance.

1.28

In the breaking of a horn, in the breaking of a bone, and in the cutting off of the tail,
one should drink milk for seven nights, until it becomes healthy again.

1.29

A twice-born should consume barley gruel mixed with cow urine;
this mixed [penance] was indeed uttered by Uśanas himself.

1.30

In a divine procession trough, in parks, in wells, and in sanctuaries—
when cattle perish in these, no penance is prescribed.

1.31

If one [cow] is accidentally killed by many together,
each of them should perform a quarter of the [penance for] killing separately.

1.32

In restraining a cow for the sake of medical treatment, or in extracting a dead fetus,
if death occurs when effort has been made, no penance is prescribed.

1.33

With hair [retained] in the first quarter; trimming of the beard in the second;
but in the third the topknot must be kept; but with the topknot [shaved] in causing death.

1.34

Lifting up all the hair, one should cut off two finger-breadths;
in this very manner is tonsure of the head prescribed for women.

1.34.p1

Thus ends the first chapter in the treatise on dharma by Āpastamba.

2.1

Now begins the description of the discrimination between purity and impurity:
What is in the hand of an artisan is pure, and what has come out of a village;
what is practiced by women, children, and the aged; and that which is not directly seen [to be impure].

2.2

At water booths, in forests, in water, and water that has flowed out into a trough—
having drunk water in the possessions of Śvapākas or Cāṇḍālas, purification is by pañcagavya.

2.3

A continuous stream is not defiled, nor dust blown by the wind;
women, old people, and children are never defiled.

2.4

One's own bed, garment, wife, child, and water pot—
these are pure for oneself, but impure for others.

2.5

Wells and likewise reservoirs dug by others—
having bathed in these and drunk [from them], one is purified by pañcagavya.

2.6

"What is polluted by food or saliva, and impurity, and that which is anointing with feces—
all is purified by water. By what is that water purified?"

2.7

By the falling of the sun's rays, and by the touch of the wind,
and by the urine and dung of cows—by that is that water purified.

2.8

What is contaminated with bones, skins, and the like, or defiled by donkeys, horses, and camels—
one should draw out all the water; cleansing is [its] thorough cleaning.

2.9

A well defiled by urine and feces, and even by spittle,
and loathed on account of dogs, jackals, donkeys, camels, and carnivorous beasts—

2.10

having drawn out that water, one should extract seven lumps [of earth];
pañcagavya purified with clay is recorded as the cleansing of that well.

2.11

The cleansing of stepped wells, ordinary wells, and reservoirs that are defiled:
having drawn out a hundred jars [of water], one should then throw in pañcagavya.

2.12

"And if a Brahmin should drink water from a well defiled by a corpse,
how would purification take place in that case? Such is my doubt."

2.13

In a well defiled by a corpse that is not putrefied nor decomposed,
having drunk [from it], one is purified by pañcagavya after a day and night [of fasting].

2.14

If a corpse is putrefied and decomposed, and if one should drink that [water] found therein,
his purification is the cāndrāyaṇa penance, or else the taptakṛcchra penance.

2.14.p1

Thus ends the second chapter in the treatise on dharma by Āpastamba.

3.1

Now the penance regarding an unknown outcaste staying in the house, and concerning children and others: / When an unknown outcaste lives in one's house, / having properly discovered it in course of time, the twice-born extend their favor.

3.2

A cāndrāyaṇa penance or a parāka is the purification for the twice-born, / but a prājāpatya penance for a Śūdra; the rest is in accordance with that.

3.3

One should cause a kṛcchra penance to be performed by those who ate cooked food there; / and one should cause a quarter-kṛcchra penance to be performed by those who ate [food cooked] by them.

3.4

Defilement by a corpse occurs in the touch of those corrupted by drinking together from a single well; / their purification is by a one-day fasting and pañcagavya.

3.5

A child, an old person, likewise a sick person, or an afflicted pregnant woman— / to them the evening meal should be given, and to children after two watches [of the day].

3.6

One who is eighty years old, or a child under sixteen, / and women and the sick, deserve half the penance.

3.7

For one under eleven years of age and over five years of age, / the teacher or a friend should perform the purifying penance.

3.8

Or rather, when [penances] are being performed, if distress is seen in them, / purification [arises] from fulfilling the remainder, so that death may not occur.

3.9

If the life of those whose bodies are afflicted with disease is endangered through hunger, / the sin belongs to those who do not protect them with food.

3.10

Even when the allotted time is completed, there is no purification without Brahmins; / even when the periods of time are incomplete, the best of the twice-born purify.

3.11

One should never say, "It is finished," among the three social classes;
procuring a Brahmin should be performed when danger to life has arisen.

3.12

What Brahmins bring about is both a sacred bathing-place and its fruit; / the performer would become completely free from sin, and the observer of the vow obtains the fruit.

3.12.p1

Thus ends the third chapter in the Dharmaśāstra of Āpastamba.

4.1

Now the penance for drinking water from a Cāṇḍāla's well and the like, and for contact with a menstruating woman and others during drinking and the like: / If someone unwittingly drinks water from a Cāṇḍāla's well or vessel, / how is his penance ordained for each social class?

4.3

A Brahmin should perform a sāntapana penance, a king a prājāpatya penance, / a Vaiśya should perform half of that, and one should assign a quarter to a Śūdra.

4.4

Having eaten, polluted by food or saliva, and not having sipped water, / if he inadvertently comes into contact with Cāṇḍālas or an outcaste dog-cooker, he should perform purification there.

4.5

He should mutter the Gāyatrī eight thousand times, or the Drupadā a hundred times; / muttering the prayer while fasting for a period of three nights, he is purified by pañcagavya.

4.6

When a twice-born, having passed feces or urine, is touched by a Cāṇḍāla, / the penance would be a period of three nights; if he was polluted by food or saliva after eating, he should perform six.

4.7

In the contact of drinking or sexual intercourse, and likewise of urine and feces, / if one should enter into contact with a menstruating woman and with outcastes—

4.8

when one is touched by these very ones, how would the penance be? / In the case of eating, it would be a period of three nights, and in drinking, just three days;

4.9

in sexual intercourse it would be a quarter-kṛcchra penance, and likewise in the case of urine and feces: / one day for urine, but three days for feces.

4.10

One day is prescribed there in the case of chewing a tooth-cleaning stick.

4.11

When a Cāṇḍāla has climbed a tree and a twice-born stands right there, / [and the twice-born] eats its fruits, how should one declare the purification?

4.12

Having obtained the permission of Brahmins, he should take a bath with his clothes on; / having fasted for one night, he is purified by pañcagavya.

4.13

Polluted by anything whatsoever of food or saliva, if a twice-born touches impure matter, / having fasted for a day and night, he is purified by pañcagavya.

4.13.p1

Thus ends the fourth chapter in the Dharmaśāstra of Āpastamba.

5.1

Now the description of penance for eating the leavings of a Vaiśya, an outcaste, a dog, or a crow: / When a member of the twice-born classes is ever touched by a Cāṇḍāla, / and drinks water without sprinkling [it], how would the penance be?

5.2

A Brahmin is purified in a period of three nights with pañcagavya; / a Kṣatriya is purified in a period of two nights with pañcagavya.

5.3

For the fourth social class, however, there is indeed no penance; / there is no religious observance, no ascetic toil, and no fire oblation whatsoever found.

5.4

pañcagavya must not be given to him, because of the exclusion of Vedic mantras; / but having declared it to the twice-born, a Śūdra is purified by a gift.

5.5

If a twice-born unwittingly eats the food leavings of a Brahmin, / muttering the Gāyatrī for a day and night, he is purified.

5.6

If a twice-born knowingly eats the food leavings of members of the Vaiśya class, / drinking milk with śaṅkhapuṣpī, he is purified in just a period of three nights.

5.7

If one ever eats with a Brahmin woman or [eats] her food leavings, / the wise constantly consider that there is no fault in that.

5.8

If one should eat or drink the food leavings of other women, / the purification would be by a prājāpatya penance; the venerable Aṅgiras has declared so.

5.9

Having eaten the food remnants of outcastes, for the twice-born / a cāndrāyaṇa penance, half of it, and a quarter of it is the rule for Brahmins, Kṣatriyas, and Vaiśyas.

5.10

On eating feces or urine, a Brahmin should perform a taptakṛcchra penance; / and on consuming the food leavings of a dog or a crow, the rule of a prājāpatya penance is prescribed.

5.11

If any Brahmin, being polluted by food or saliva, unintentionally touches / dogs, cocks, and Śūdras, and likewise a vessel of liquor,

5.12

and whatever has been stepped on by a bird, or whatever impure matter at any time, / having fasted for a day and night, he is purified by pañcagavya.

5.13

And when he is ever touched by a Vaiśya who is polluted by food or saliva, / bathing and muttered prayer at the three junctures of the day, he is purified at the end of the day.

5.14

If a Brahmin is ever touched by a Brahmin who is polluted by food or saliva, / having bathed and sipped water, he would be purified; the sage Āpastamba has said so.

5.14.p1

Thus ends the fifth chapter in the Dharmaśāstra of Āpastamba.

6.1

Now, the penance for wearing indigo cloth and consuming indigo:
Henceforth I shall proclaim the rule regarding indigo cloth:
it is not defiled during sexual enjoyment for women's pleasure in bed.

6.2

In rearing [the plant], and in selling it, and in subsisting on trade in it, / a Brahmin becomes fallen; he is purified by three kṛcchra penances.

6.3

Bathing, giving, ascetic toil, fire oblation, Vedic recitation, offering water to ancestors, / and the five daily sacrifices are useless for him, because of wearing indigo-dyed cloth.

6.4

When a Brahmin wears indigo-dyed cloth on his limbs, / having fasted for a day and night, he is purified by pañcagavya.

6.5

If juice of indigo should ever enter through the pores of the body hair, / a Brahmin becomes fallen; he is purified by three kṛcchra penances.

6.6

When indigo wood pierces the body of a Brahmin / and blood is seen there, the twice-born should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

6.7

If a Brahmin inadvertently enters into an indigo field anywhere, / having fasted for a day and night, he is purified by pañcagavya.

6.8

Food that is brought [by someone wearing] indigo-dyed cloth / is inedible for the twice-born; having eaten it, one should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

6.9

If a Brahmin should inadvertently eat indigo anywhere, / his purification shall be by the cāndrāyaṇa penance: so spoke the sage Āpastamba.

6.10

As much earth as has been sown with indigo is impure; / its measure is twelve years, after which it becomes pure.

6.10.p1

Thus ends the sixth chapter in the Dharmaśāstra of Āpastamba.

7.p1

Touching an outcaste and others by a menstruating woman, of a maiden during a marriage and so forth,

7.p2

penance upon the appearance of menses.

7.1

Bathing of a menstruating woman is prescribed on the fourth day. / When the menses have ceased, the woman may be approached; by no means while they have not ceased.

7.2

When menses flow excessively for women because of disease, / they are not impure thereby in this world, for that is a morbid disorder of theirs.

7.3

She is not of virtuous conduct as long as the menses flow; / when the menses have ceased, she becomes fit for household duties and sexual union.

7.4

On the first day she is declared a Cāṇḍāla woman, on the second a slayer of a Brahmin, / on the third a washerwoman; on the fourth day she becomes pure.

7.5

A menstruating woman who is touched by an outcaste or a Śvapāka / should perform a penance after passing through those days [of her flow].

7.6

There shall be fasting for a period of three nights, and pañcagavya is the purifier; / having reached that night, he should engage with the womb to produce offspring.

7.7

One should avoid a menstruating woman touched by a dog and by a Śvapāka; / having fasted for a period of three nights, she is purified with pañcagavya.

7.8

On the first day, [fasting for] six nights; on the second, three days; / and on the third, fasting; on the fourth, by viewing fire.

7.9

When a marriage has commenced, a sacrifice begun, and a rite being performed, / if a maiden becomes menstruating, how should the rite proceed?

7.10

Having then bathed the maiden and adorned her with other clothes, / having offered the countervailing oblation again, one should perform the remainder of the rite.

7.11

A menstruating woman touched by waterbirds, cocks, or crows / is purified by fasting for a period of three nights and with pañcagavya.

7.12

If a menstruating woman is ever touched by one polluted by food or saliva, / a Brahmin is purified by a kṛcchra penance, and she is purified by giving a gift.

7.13

If a Cāṇḍāla or a menstruating woman has mounted the same branch / together with a Brahmin, he should perform a bath with clothes on.

7.14

If touching of a menstruating woman somehow occurs by a dog, / she is purified having fasted for whatever remains of the days of her menses.

7.15

If unable to fast, she should afterwards perform a bath; / if even unable for that with one [meal], she should then drink pañcagavya.

7.16

When a Brahmin polluted by food or saliva touches intoxicant or a menstruating woman, / having touched intoxicant he should perform a kṛcchra penance, and half of that for a menstruating woman.

7.17

If a Brahmin polluted by food or saliva touches a menstruating woman or a woman recently delivered of a child, / the Brahmin should perform half a kṛcchra penance as a purifying penance.

7.18

If a menstruating woman is touched by Cāṇḍālas or Śvapākas, / she is purified after the remaining days by [eating] what is plowed with a plowshare and with pañcagavya.

7.19

If a Brahmin menstruating woman touches a Śūdra menstruating woman, / having fasted for a day and night, she is purified with pañcagavya.

7.20

And likewise, if a Brahmin woman [touches] a menstruating Kṣatriya or Vaiśya woman, / having performed a bath with clothes on, she should drink clarified butter at the end of the day.

7.21

Among women of the same social class, however, an immediate bath is prescribed; / thus indeed shall purification take place: so spoke the sage Āpastamba.

7.21.p1

Thus ends the seventh chapter in the Dharmaśāstra of Āpastamba.

8.11

Description of the rules for the purification of bell-metal defiled by liquor and other things: / Bell-metal that is not smeared with liquor is purified with ashes; / when touched by liquor, feces, or urine, it is purified by heating and scraping.

8.2

Bell-metal vessels smelled by cows, or polluted by food or saliva of pure persons, / and those defiled by dogs and crows, are purified with ten ashes.

8.3

The purification of gold and women is by wind and the rays of the sun and moon.

8.4

Woolen cloth touched by semen or touched by a corpse is defiled; / washing only that [affected] spot with water and earth, it is purified.

8.5

Pure food of a non-Brahmin digests in five nights; / food accompanied by cooked vegetables digests in half a month;

8.5.p1

Milk and yogurt [are digested] in a month, and likewise ghee in six months;
but oil in the belly digests in a year—or does it not?

8.7

Those who eat the food of a Śūdra continuously for one month / attain the state of a Śūdra in this life, and dying, are born from a female dog.

8.8

Food of a Śūdra, contact with a Śūdra, sitting together with a Śūdra, / and acquiring knowledge from a Śūdra would cause even a blazing [sage] to fall.

8.9

The Brahmin who has consecrated the sacred fires and does not turn away from the food of a Śūdra, / his self, sacred knowledge, and the three fires perish.

8.10

He who, having eaten the food of a Śūdra, approaches for sexual intercourse, / his sons belong to him whose food it was, for the semen arises from another.

8.11-2

Whatever twice-born man dies with the food of a Śūdra remaining in his stomach / becomes a village pig, or dying, is born as a dog.

8.12

One may always eat the [food] of a Brahmin; that of a Kṣatriya on a festival day; / that of a Vaiśya during the consecration for a sacrifice; that of a Śūdra never.

8.13

The food of a Brahmin is considered nectar; that of a Kṣatriya is remembered as milk; / the food of a Vaiśya is mere food; that of a Śūdra is remembered as blood.

8.14

Through the offering to all deities, fire oblation, worship of deities, and muttered prayers, / the Brahmin's food, consecrated by the Ṛg, Yajur, and Sāma Vedas, is therefore nectar.

8.15

Conforming to legal transaction, righteous, devoid of deceit, / and because of the protection of living beings, the food of a Kṣatriya is therefore milk.

8.16

Through his own work and with oxen, pursuing [farming] according to his capacity, / through offering at the threshing floor and hospitality to guests, the food of a Vaiśya is consecrated.

8.17

Of one blind with the darkness of ignorance and devoted to drinking intoxicants, / devoid of rules and mantras, the food of a Śūdra is therefore blood.

8.18

Raw meat, honey, clarified butter, parched grain, and likewise milk, / molasses, buttermilk: these may equally be accepted from a Śūdra even by an ascetic.

8.19

Vegetables, meat, lotus-fibers, coriander, roasted barley meal, sesame seeds, / juices, fruits, and oil-cake may indeed be accepted from anywhere.

8.20

If in a time of distress [food] has been eaten by a Brahmin in the house of a Śūdra, / he should be purified by repentance, or recite the Drupada verse a hundred times.

8.21

And if one holding goods is touched at any time by a Śūdra polluted by food or saliva, / that should not be eaten by a twice-born man: so spoke the sage Āpastamba.

8.21.p1

Thus ends the eighth chapter in the Dharmaśāstra of Āpastamba.

9.1

Description of penances for drinking undrinkable liquids and eating inedible foods: / If the anus of a Brahmin leaks while he is eating, / what would be the penance for him, polluted by food or saliva and impure?

9.2

Having first performed purification, he should sip water afterwards; / having fasted for a day and night, he is purified with pañcagavya.

9.3

If, having eaten all the food without performing his own purification, / he eats through delusion, he is purified by drinking barley water for a period of three nights.

9.4

A handful of barley grain, one pala of clarified butter, / and five palas of cow's urine; he should not make [him] consume more than that.

9.5

Upon eating things that must not be licked, drunk, or eaten, / and semen, urine, or feces, what would be the penance?

9.6

Lotus, udumbara, and bilva, kuśa, aśvattha, and palāśa— / having drunk water [boiled with] these, he is purified in six nights.

9.7

Those Brahmins who have apostatized from renunciation, [suicide by] fire, water, and the like, / or have turned back from fasting unto death, wishing to become householders,

9.8

Should perform three kṛcchra penances or three cāndrāyaṇa penances; / having received anew all the life-cycle rites beginning with the birth ritual, / for them [there is] a sāntapana kṛcchra or a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

9.9

If the body should be enveloped by crows, herons, or kites, and smeared with impure matter, / and it should enter into the ears and the mouth, purification of the one defiled by smearing is achieved through a thorough bath.

9.10

Above the navel, with the exception of the two hands, whatever limb is defiled: / above, a bath [is required]; below, purification; he is purified by wiping alone.

9.11

Whose mouth shoes or impure matter touches, / purification with earth, a bath, and pañcagavya are the means of purification.

9.12

A Brahmin is purified after ten days upon birth or death in one's own class, / and in the classes of Kṣatriyas, Vaiśyas, and Śūdras after six, three, and then one [day].

9.13

When food has been brought forward and the eater has sat down, / he should not give nor make an oblation of that which was abandoned without the calf drinking.

9.14

When the food has been prepared for a meal and is defiled by flies or hair, / immediately thereafter he should touch water, and touch that food with ashes.

9.15

Having unintentionally eaten food consisting of dried meat, or even the food of a Śūdra, / a Brahmin should perform a kṛcchra penance; knowingly, he should perform three kṛcchra penances.

9.16

He who leaves [food] uneaten, and he who eats while dripping, / both the eater and the feeder go to sin along the row [of diners].

9.17

Whatever food he eats, or has eaten, or especially [if it is] corrupted, / having fasted for a day and night, he is purified by pañcagavya.

9.18

Standing in water, he is pure in water; standing on land, [pure] on land; / placing both feet on both sides and sipping water, he is pure on both sides.

9.19

Having emerged [from the water] and sipped water, having stepped down from the water, he should touch water; / endowed with welfare in this manner, he is revered by Varuṇa.

9.20

In the fire sanctuary, in a cowpen, and in the presence of Brahmins, / during Vedic recitation, and at a meal, casting off shoes [is required].

9.21

At a life-cycle rite beginning from birth and on the edge of a cremation ground, eating / should not be done by non-sapiṇḍas, especially during the tonsure ceremony.

9.22

Having eaten the food of a sacrificial priest, at a new ancestral offering, or during an eclipse, / and at the first pregnancy of women, he should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

9.23

At a boiled-rice offering for Brahmins, at an ancestral offering, likewise at the parting-of-the-hair rite, / and having eaten at a grain ancestral offering or an ancestral offering for the recently deceased, he should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

9.24

In the house of a woman who is childless, one should not eat; / but he who eats out of delusion goes to the hell of pus.

9.25

The father who gives away a maiden even for a small bride-price, / consumes feces and urine in the Raurava hell for many years.

9.26

And those relatives who, out of delusion, live off a woman's property— / gold, vehicles, garments—those wicked men go to the downward course.

9.27

A king's food takes away splendor; the food of a Śūdra, spiritual luster; / but he who eats unsanctified food eats the filth of the earth.

9.28

During impurity caused by death, and during impurity caused by birth, when the moon or the sun is eclipsed, / and he who eats in the shadow of an elephant, that man becomes a sinner.

9.29

Having eaten at the first pregnancies of these—a remarried woman, one who returns again, / one bearing another's seed, and an unchaste woman—he should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

9.30

Having eaten, especially, the food of these: a killer of a mother, a killer of a father, / a killer of a Brahmin, and one who defiles his guru's bed, he should perform a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

9.31

Having eaten the food of washermen, hunters, actors, and those who make a living by bamboo or leather, / a Brahmin obtains purification by a cāndrāyaṇa penance.

9.31.p1

If one polluted by food or saliva should ever be touched by another polluted by food or saliva
of the same social class, he becomes pure by rising up and performing rinsing [of the mouth].

9.32

A twice-born touched while polluted by food or saliva by a dog or by a Śūdra who is polluted by food or saliva, / having fasted for one night, is purified by pañcagavya.

9.33

To a Brahmin who is perpetually a servant to a Śūdra, / food should be given on the ground; just as a dog is, so is he.

9.34

In waterless wildernesses, on a road beset with thieves and tigers, / having discharged urine and feces, how is one holding goods pure?

9.35

Placing the food on the ground, performing purification in accordance with what is proper, / taking the cooked food in his lap and then sipping water, he is pure.

9.36

A twice-born, having discharged urine or feces without having performed purification for himself, / having eaten out of delusion, having drunk products of the cow for three nights, is purified.

9.37

If a Brahmin, deluded by intoxication, should approach a menstruating woman, / he would be purified by a cāndrāyaṇa penance and by feeding Brahmins.

9.38

If, while polluted by food or saliva after eating and without having sipped water, a Brahmin weak in knowledge / is touched out of negligence by Cāṇḍālas or by a Śvapāka,

9.39

Bathing regularly at the three junctures of the day, celibate, sleeping on the ground, / having fasted for three nights, he is purified by pañcagavya.

9.40

And the twice-born who drinks water when touched by a Cāṇḍāla, / having fasted for a day and night, is purified by [bathing at] the three junctures of the day.

9.41

In the evening and in the morning for a day and night—they know that as one-fourth of a kṛcchra; / likewise, in the evening and in the morning for one [day], and two days eating only unasked food,

9.42

And for two days he should not eat: that is prescribed as half of a kṛcchra; / this is a light penance for sins according to their gravity.

9.43

One who accepts a black antelope skin and sesame seeds, a seller of elephants and horses, / and one who carries out a corpse, will not become a human again.

9.43.p1

Thus ends the ninth chapter in the Dharmaśāstra of Āpastamba.

10.1

Now the description of the designation of those eligible for liberation: / Even having sipped water, one is impure as long as the water is not carried away; / even when it is carried away, one is impure as long as the ground is not smeared [with cow dung].

English (machine translation)

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