The old Devala law-book — fragments 7: Impurity and expiation

English (machine translation) 7

Language: English

Impurity and expiation

7.1

At a birth or a death impurity always pursues the sapiṇḍas and the mother's kin, wherever they may go.

7.2

(The impurity incurred by) touching (a dead man) of the Śūdra, Vaiśya, Kṣatriya and Brahmin classes is to be known as a third of their own period of impurity, as the treatises prescribe.

When impurities overlap, purification is prescribed by the later one; if (the second) occurs after an equal day, it is governed by the former. When impurities coincide, purification is to be known by the heavier; when a death and a birth coincide, the death is the heavier.

7.4

(Hearing of a death) within three fortnights, three days; within six months, a day and two nights; then one day until a year; after that one is purified by bathing.

7.5

When the first days are over, the twice-born, well bathed and having performed auspicious rites and made the Brahmins pronounce a blessing, are freed from impurity.

7.6

Sharing a bed or a seat, the dining row, vessels, mixing cooked food, officiating, teaching, marriage and eating together: association is declared to be of nine kinds; it is not to be practised with the vile.

7.7

For a sinful act done once without intent, this atonement is declared by the wise who know dharma; for a second time, double this first rule; for a third, a threefold Kṛcchra; for a fourth there is no atonement.

7.8

A Brahmin is freed from grave sins by duly laying down his body at a most holy ford; a Kṣatriya and those who live by arms are purified by giving their lives in a righteous battle, in a cattle-raid or when a village is being destroyed.

7.9

The student has one sacred thread, the other two (householder and hermit) two; ascetics have only one: this is the settled view of the treatise.

Linked texts (1)

Devalasmṛti (fragments) — Sanskrit