Atri Smriti 5

Square for a brahmin, triangular for a Kṣatriya, / circular for a Vaiśya, and sprinkling with water is remembered for a Śūdra. / Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Rudra, Śrī, and Agni the oblation-eater—

Because they subsist on ritual circles, people make a ritual circle; / Yātudhānas, Piśācas, and cruel Rākṣasas

take away the essence of food that is devoid of a ritual circle; / having made a ritual circle with cow dung, one should eat: this is established.

Wherever one has eaten the food of a fallen outcaste, one must perform the lunar penance; / both the ascetic and the celibate student are the rightful masters of cooked food.

Having eaten without giving food to both of them, one must perform the lunar penance; / one should pour water into the ascetic's hand, give alms, and then pour water again.

That alms-food is equal to Mount Meru, and that water is like an ocean; / the twice-born who eats food or drinks milk with his left hand,

that is equal to drinking liquor; so Manu, the self-born, declared; / but fats, salt, condiments, and the like offered by hand

do not benefit the giver, and the eater eats fault; / the food of a brahmin invited by an outcaste is inedible,

and likewise the food of an outcaste invited by a brahmin; / a Śūdra giving a brahmin's food, or a brahmin giving a Śūdra's food—

both of these are persons whose food is inedible; having eaten it, one must perform the lunar penance; / a brahmin's food is considered nectar; a Kṣatriya's food is considered milk;

a Vaiśya's food is just food; a Śūdra's food is considered blood; / he who engages in sexual intercourse while a Śūdra's food is in his belly,

his sons belong to him whose food it was, for semen arises from food; / even if he studies daily, one whose limbs are nourished by the essence of a Śūdra's food,

even offering fire oblations or reciting silently, does not attain a higher realm; / but he who, while studying the Veda, partakes of a Śūdra's food,

the Śūdra attains the fruit of the Veda, and he himself falls into the condition of a Śūdra; / a twice-born man whose limbs are nourished by impurity of death or birth, who eats a Śūdra's food,

even I do not know into which wombs he will go; / a dog for seven births, a boar for nine births,

a vulture for twelve births: so declared Manu; / those householder twice-born who subsist on food cooked by others,

they indeed attain the nature of a donkey, a camel, and a dog; / he who, having given or eaten in an ancestral rite, engages in sexual intercourse,

his ancestors feed on semen during that month; / one touched by polluted food remnant, however, while holding an object in hand, must not under any circumstances [remain so];

having placed that object on the ground and sipped water for purification, he would attain purity; / drops that touch the feet of one who causes others to sip water for purification,

are to be considered as belonging to the earth; one does not become impure by them; / even though he has sipped water, he remains impure as long as the dish is not removed;

even when it is removed, he remains impure as long as the cleansing of the ritual circle [is not done]; / but that brahmin who eats with his foot placed upon the seat,

his food is like that vomited from the mouth, equal to eating beef; / or a remnant of seasoned food during a meal that has come out of the mouth,

is inedible food for the twice-born; having eaten it, one must perform the lunar penance; / whatever leftover water a brahmin drinks again after drinking,

that water becomes undrinkable; having drunk it, one must perform the lunar penance; / one should eat along the line of the house-beam, but one should not sleep along the line of the house-beam;

eating along the line of the house-beam, one attains long life; / one should eat with wet feet, but one should not sleep with wet feet;

eating with wet feet, one attains long life; / having dry feet when lying down, one attains enduring prosperity;

facing east one eats for long life; facing south for renown; / facing west one eats for prosperity; facing north one eats for truth.

In a death impurity, having gone to the house of the corpse, or to the cremation ground, or in between, / having paid respects to the afflicted, even if standing far away, one becomes impure.

When ten days have passed, however, one remains impure for three nights; / when a year has elapsed, he is purified merely by touching water.

Hearing of the death of a distant relative or the birth of a son, / plunging into water with his clothes on, a man becomes pure.

If a man who is not pure touches food that is by itself impure, / he is purified by fasting; if he eats it, that twice-born [is purified] by a kṛcchra penance.

Touching a birth-impure person during a birth impurity, ablution [is required], and also in death and birth impurities; / purification would occur only with the birth impurity; one is pure when the ten-day period of the deceased [ends].

Touching a birth-impure person during a birth impurity, ablution [is required], and also in death and birth impurities; / having eaten or drunk [such food] out of ignorance, there should be a three-day fast.

Purity of earthen vessels is prescribed after ten days; / for those used in ablutions and the like, discarding alone is enjoined.

In birth impurity and in death impurity, and when birth occurs at the end of a death impurity; / therefore, during an impurity contracted through contact, one is not purified during death impurity.

Death impurity is double a birth impurity; menstrual impurity is double a death impurity; / childbirth is double a menstrual impurity; and higher than that is the cremator of a corpse.

When one follows a deceased person, whether a relative or a non-relative, / bathing with one's clothes on, touching fire, and consuming ghee, he is purified.

A woman is purified by her menses; a river is purified by its current; / bell-metal is purified by ashes; an earthen vessel by re-firing.

Bathing in ocean waters and likewise shaving the head: / if the husband performs these while his wife is pregnant, he certainly will not have offspring.

The couple, together with the infant, on the tenth day of birth impurity, / should perform tonsure; then, purified, they have eligibility for gifts and dining.

One should not make a sesame-water libation on a bank defiled by hair and the like; / water should be offered in the midst of water for the ancestors who desire water; / it must not be given on dry ground; it does not reach the ancestors.

One should divide the night into three parts: the first two parts belong to the previous day; / the latter portion is joined to the dawn in the case of death and birth impurities.

If she should see menses first, death on an inauspicious weekday is stated; / seeing this, having eaten, mounting footwear is prescribed; / having bathed and undertaken the vow of Indra, he should offer it to the deities.

Having given flatbread, salt, kidney beans, and sacrificial ghee mixed with jaggery / to the wives of brahmins, and also a meal at night,

on the fourth day, shaving the head must be performed with great care; / having caused the declaration of an auspicious day to be recited at the end, one desiring purification should eat.

If a brahmin, ignorant of duty, eats on a day that is not declared auspicious, / he eats what belongs to his caste [only in part], and penance is certain for him.

When a marriage ceremony is underway and the time for fire oblation has arrived, / seeing the maiden menstruating, how do the sacrificers proceed?

Having bathed her with the [verse] *haviṣmatī* and adorned her with another garment, / and having made an oblation with the *yuñjānā* [mantra], the rite then proceeds.

On the first day she is [like] an outcaste woman, on the second a slayer of a brahmin, / on the third she is declared a washerwoman, and on the fourth day she becomes pure.

If a woman overflowing with menses, a caṇḍāla, a fallen man, or a dog / is encountered in the midst of eating, having bathed, one should silently recite the triad of verses beginning with *mā nas*.

If distressed by blindness, one eats having seen a woman overflowing with menses, / having vomited that food, he should drink water infused with kuśa grass.

Whoever eats having given [food] to her—the prājāpatya penance is the purifier; / and if one who is designated as overflowing with menses,

speaks to a woman overflowing with menses out of delusion, both of them must fast. / And having eaten from the hand of a menstruating woman, one should perform the lunar penance.

A prājāpatya penance [is prescribed] if [she is] untruthful; a three-night fast if one eats food she touched; / if eating from her hand, it is threefold; and [likewise] if eating together [with her].

It is fourfold for her polluted food remnant, and half of that for water. / Having eaten inadvertently food that was near a menstruating woman,

purification comes through a fast, and he should drink the brahma-suvarcalā [plant]. / If a menstruating woman sees a caṇḍāla while having food remnants,

she should not eat until the time of ablution, remaining seated outside and restrained in speech. / He who performs a quarter-kṛcchra penance should also drink [water with] the brahma-kṛcchra.

Afterwards he should feed brahmins in accordance with the instruction of the learned. / How should it be if one sees menses upon contact with birth or death impurity?

She should not eat until the time of ablution; if she has eaten, she should perform the lunar penance. / If a woman overflowing with menses touches a caṇḍāla,

or if a woman overflowing with menses touches another woman overflowing with menses, / having bathed, she should fast; and she is purified by the five products of the cow.

She should perform one kṛcchra penance; but half of that if separated [by cloth]. / How should the rite of ablution be for a sick woman who has completed her menstrual period?

Healthy women, bathing again and again, should touch her ten times; / having removed her garment, she should cleanse herself with ashes.

Having given a gift according to her ability, she is purified through an auspicious day declaration. / She should bear upon her head water released by the hands of brahmins.

It is declared to be superior to all holy ford banks. / A twice-born should not perform the funeral rite for a deceased menstruating woman.

After three nights, when she is bathed, he should cremate her according to the rule for a corpse. / If two menstruating women belonging to the four castes touch each other,

the higher [in caste] should perform an atikṛcchra penance, and the other one kṛcchra penance, in order. / If a menstruating woman, having bathed, becomes menstruating once again,

beyond twenty days she remains impure for three nights. / A woman who has given birth, however, [if bleeding occurs] beyond twenty days from ablution,

she is declared a menstruating woman; earlier, however, it is circumstantial blood. / A pure woman clad in clean garments, upon seeing menses again,

having cast off the soiled garment and bathing with sesame seeds, is purified. / When ablution is due for an invalid, a healthy person, having bathed again and again,

should touch him ten times; then he will become pure. / During an eclipse of the moon or sun one should not eat; they eat after bathing when it is released.

If they set unreleased, one may eat on the next day after seeing [them]. / In whose birth-asterism the moon and sun are eclipsed,

for him there is sickness, exile, death, poverty, and great fear. / Therefore, giving a gift, fire oblation, worship of the deity, and silent recitation

he should perform attentively on that day; for him there will be pacification. / All water is equal to the Gaṅgā when the sun is eclipsed by Rāhu.

The man who bathes in that sacred place, in the ocean, or at the Causeway, / having fasted for one night when the sun is eclipsed by Rāhu,

the sin committed in seven births is destroyed at that very instant. / In the case of the moon it is likewise equal to the sun; therefore one should perform everything.

Thus ends the fifth chapter in the Smṛti of Atri.