Agnipurana 170
English (machine translation) 170
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Contents
170.1
Puṣkara said: / I shall declare to you the expiations for those associated with major sins. / By associating with a fallen person for a year, one becomes fallen,
170.2
through officiating at his sacrifice, teaching him, or entering marital alliance with him, but not through sharing a vehicle, food, or a seat. / Whichever person forms an association with any of these fallen people,
170.3
He should perform the very votive observance [prescribed] for that [sinner] to purify himself of that association. / Water offerings for an outcaste must be made by his sapiṇḍas along with his kinsmen.
170.4
On an inauspicious day, at dusk, in the presence of relatives, officiating priests, and elders, / a servant should overturn a pot full of water with his foot, as for a dead man.
170.5
They should observe ritual impurity for a day and a night along with their kinsmen. / Moreover, they should exclude him from the eldest son's share, conversation, and the like;
170.6
and a younger brother who is superior in virtue should obtain his eldest share.
170.6.p1
[Footnote]
170.6.p2
1. 'mahāpāpopapannānām' in manuscript ṅa.
170.6.p3
2. 'prāyaścittaṃ vadāmi te' in manuscript jha.
170.6.p4
3. 'pretavat sadā' in manuscripts kha, ga, gha, and ṅa. / [p. 175]
170.6_2
When, however, the expiation has been performed, [they should take] a new pot full of water;
170.7
having bathed in a sacred pool, they should drink [from it] together with him. / They should carry out this very rite even for women who have fallen [from caste].
170.8
Clothing, food, and drink should be given [to them], and they should dwell near the house. / For those twice-born whose Sāvitrī [mantra] has not been recited according to rule,
170.9
having made them perform three kṛcchra penances, one should initiate them according to rule. / One should also prescribe this for those fallen into illicit deeds or abandoned.
170.10
Having recited three thousand [repetitions] of the Sāvitrī [mantra] with concentrated mind / and lived on milk in a cowpen for a month, one is freed from [the sin of accepting an] improper gift.
170.11
Having officiated at sacrifices for the uninitiated (vrātyas), performed funeral rites for unrelated persons, / and [practiced] sorcery on unimpaired persons, one removes [the sin] by three kṛcchra penances.
170.12
A twice-born man who abandons someone seeking refuge or misrepresents the Veda / wards off that sin [by being] restrained in diet for a year.
170.13
A man bitten by dogs, jackals, or donkeys, or by domestic carnivorous animals, / camels, horses, or boars, becomes pure by breath-control (prāṇāyāma).
170.14
Upon the violation of a snātaka's vows or the abandonment of prescribed rites, fasting [is prescribed]. / Having uttered a grunt of contempt (huṅkāra) at a brāhmaṇa or addressed a superior disrespectfully ('thou'),
170.15
bathing and fasting for the remainder of the day, having saluted [him], he should propitiate him. / Raising a hand [against a brāhmaṇa], he should perform a kṛcchra; upon striking him down, an atikṛcchra;
170.16
causing the blood of a vipra to flow, he should perform a kṛcchrātikṛcchra.
170.16.p1
[Footnote]
170.16.p2
1. 'na yujyeta' in manuscript kha.
170.16.p3
2. 'kṛcchrair viśuddhyati' in manuscripts ga, gha, and ṅa.
170.16.p4
3. 'naroṣṭraviḍvarāhaiśca' in manuscript ṅa.
170.16.p5
4. 'krūṅkāram' in manuscripts kha, gha, and cha; 'oṅkāram' in ga and ṅa; 'haṅkārañca' in kha. / [p. 176]
170.16_2
If an unrecognised cāṇḍāla or similar person should reside in someone's dwelling,
170.17
when fully recognised in time, one should perform a purification for it: / a cāndrāyaṇa or a parāka is the purification for twice-born men;
170.18
a prājāpatya for śūdras; the rest [should be done] accordingly. / Molasses, safflower, salt, and whatever grains [are there],
170.19
having placed [them] at the doorway of that house, one should set fire to them. / The abandonment of earthen vessels is prescribed.
170.20
For the remaining materials, purification of objects is prescribed. / Those who are attached to drinking from a single well, corrupted in resolve through contact,
170.21
become pure by a fast or by the five products of the cow (pañcagavya). / One who intentionally touches a caṇḍāla and eats,
170.22
if twice-born, should perform a cāndrāyaṇa or a taptakṛcchra. / One who is contaminated through vessels [held in common] with despised persons such as cāṇḍālas,
170.23
having eaten or drunk their [food and drink], becomes purified after six nights. / Twice-born men having eaten the leftover food of outcasts
170.24
should observe the cāndrāyaṇa votive observance, but a śūdra [fasts for] three nights. / If out of ignorance he drinks water from a caṇḍāla's well or vessels,
170.25
a twice-born man should perform the śāntapana penance, and a śūdra should fast for a day. / But a twice-born man who, touched by a caṇḍāla, drinks water,
170.26
must observe [a penance of] three nights, and a śūdra should fast for a day. / If a twice-born man is touched by a dog or a śūdra while defiled by food,
170.26.p1
[Footnote]
170.26.p2
1. 'sparśasaṅkalpabhūṣitāḥ' in manuscript jha.
170.26.p3
2. 'saṃsṛṣṭaḥ' in manuscript ka.
170.26.p4
3. 'yadā' in manuscripts kha, ga, gha, ṅa, and cha. / [p. 177]
170.27
having fasted for one night, he is purified by the five products of the cow. / With a vaiśya or a kṣatriya [similarly defiled], he should take a bath and eat only at night.
170.28
If a vipra setting out on a journey in a waterless wilderness / discharges urine or feces while holding cooked food,
170.29
without setting that item down but keeping it on his body, / having performed ritual purification and sprinkled the food with water, he should show it to the sun and fire.
170.30
For those taken by barbarians (mlecchas) or thieves, or dwelling abroad in the wilderness, / I shall proclaim an expiation for the purification of edible and inedible things.
170.31
Having returned again to their own land, in the order of the social classes: / at the end of a kṛcchra, a brāhmaṇa is entitled to undergo sacraments again;
170.32
a kṣatriya at the end of three-quarters [of a kṛcchra]; a vaiśya at the end of half; / and having performed one quarter and given a gift, a śūdra becomes purified.
170.33
If a menstruating woman is touched by a menstruating woman of the same caste, / having bathed on that very day, she attains ritual purity without doubt.
170.34
A menstruating woman touched by a woman of lower caste should not eat / until she attains ritual purity; she is purified by a purifying bath.
170.35
If after urinating while walking on the road one drinks water through lapse of memory, / having fasted for a day and night, he is purified by the five products of the cow.
170.36
If a twice-born man discharges urine or feces and, without performing his ritual purification, / eats out of delusion, he is purified by drinking barley-water for three nights.
170.37
For those vipras who have lapsed from religious mendicancy and the like by force
170.37.p1
[Footnote]
170.37.p2
1. 'bhakṣyabhojyaviśuddhyartham' in manuscript jha.
170.37.p3
2. 'lobhādbhuktvā' in manuscripts kha, ga, gha, ṅa, and cha. / [p. 178]
170.37_2
and for those turned back from fasting to death, purification is proclaimed:
170.38
one should make them perform three kṛcchras or a cāndrāyaṇa, / and should consecrate them again with the life-cycle sacraments beginning with the birth rite (jātakarman).
170.39
When a shoe or impure matter touches someone's face, / clay, cow dung, and the five products of the cow are the purification there.
170.40
Shaving [for money], selling, wearing blue garments, and the like, / are indeed a torment for a vipra; he is purified by three kṛcchras.
170.41
A menstruating woman touched by an outcaste or dog-cooker / is purified on the fourth day; she should observe [a penance of] three nights therein.
170.42
Having touched a caṇḍāla, a dog-cooker, or pus, or a woman in childbed, / or a corpse or one who touched it, one is instantly purified by a bath.
170.43
Having touched a human bone with fat, a vipra is purified by bathing. / [Touched by] road dust, mud, or water below the navel, [one is purified] by earth and water.
170.44
One who has vomited or purged becomes pure after bathing and sipping clarified butter. / One who has shaved becomes pure through bathing; one who has eaten during an eclipse must perform a kṛcchra.
170.45
One who eats with outcasts, one who consumes cow products, or one bitten by a dog becomes pure in that way; / one bitten by worms and one who attempted suicide [become pure] through kṛcchra, recitation, and fire oblation.
170.46
And through fire oblations and the like, as well as through repentance, all sinners are purified.
170.46.p1
Thus ends the one hundred and seventieth chapter in the great Agni Purāṇa, named 'Expiations'.
170.46.p2
1 'antyajaiś ca svapākeneti' in manuscript ṅa.
170.46.p3
2 The passage beginning with 'antyajātiśvapākenetyādiḥ' and ending with 'tatra ācaredityantaḥ' is missing in manuscript cha.
170.46.p4
3 'śavantatatsparśinaṃ śvānamiti' in kha; 'śavantatspṛṣṭinaṃ śvānamiti' in gha and ja.
170.46.p5
4 The passage beginning with 'mūtroccāraṃ dvijaḥ kṛtvetyādiḥ' and ending with 'pūyante pāpino 'khilā ityantaḥ' is missing in manuscripts ja and jha.
170.46.p7
Now begins the one hundred and seventy-first chapter.
170.46.p8
Expiations.
Other recensions (1)
- Agnipurāṇa (Nag Publishers edition, Delhi) — Sanskrit
Linked texts (1)
- Agnipurāṇa — Vyāsa, Sanskrit