Kamikagama 2.26: ṣaḍviṃśatitamaḥ paṭalaḥ

I shall explain the funeral rite (antyeṣṭi) of the initiated, O best of the twice-born: / whether a brāhmaṇa, a kṣatriya, a vaiśya, a śūdra, or born in the direct order (anuloma);

whether they are masters (ācārya), ritual adepts (sādhaka), initiated disciples (putraka), or those established in the pledge (samayastha); / when their vital breaths are gone, the funeral rite must indeed be performed by initiated persons.

For the three [classes] beginning with the master, it should be accompanied by the purification of the paths (adhvaśuddhi); / the funeral rite for the others should be devoid of the purification of the paths.

If these three, beginning with the master, have abandoned correct conduct / and die without having performed expiation (prāyaścitta), in the funeral rite

daily and other rites were properly performed along with the purification of the principles (tattvaśuddhi); / but for those who avoided prohibited acts and were unheedless,

a funeral rite alone is declared, omitting the purification of the principles; / or for those by whom immediate release (sadyotkrānti) was accomplished by piercing the aperture of Brahmā (brahmarandhra),

experts in the sacrifice do not prescribe the purification of the principles for them. / When the creature's time known as the departure of life has arrived,

having performed the fiery bath (āgneyasnāna) for him whose body is armored with mantras, / and having likewise made the seeker of liberation's body consist of mantras through the fiery [rite],

and having worshipped the Lord with eight flowers (aṣṭapuṣpikā) for the sake of the seeker of liberation, / with his own hand or with the hands of others, using sandalwood paste and other offerings,

having installed the Great Lord (Maheśvara) in the form of the Liṅga in his heart, / making [the dying person] touch [it] and having him place his folded hands upon his head,

he should recite this declaration in the presence of the Lord of the gods: / 'This person, O Lord, was initiated by You and has maintained the command of Śiva;

he is to be led to Śivahood soon after the sapīṇḍīkaraṇa rite.' / Having thus made petition to the Lord of the gods, he should deposit [the deity] in his own place.

He may perform this rite either once or many times. / At the moment of the departure [of life], he should recite the collected text (saṃhitā) near the ear,

especially the Śiva-mantra, or the five-syllable mantra. / All this is to be carried out either by the preceptor or by another,

or by a person born of the same gotra, or by another; and that rite which is to be told [is as follows]. / When the man's breath has departed, for the sake of his bathing, water originating from a sacred bath (tīrtha)

should be collected by well-bathed people, beginning with a hundred pots; / with them he should bathe [him], together with ordinary bathing if he was a householder.

Having arranged pots or pitchers according to the instructions for lustration (snapana), / he should bathe [him] with plain water, omitting the secondary pitcher (vardhanī);

[the vessel] placed on an abundant bare ground altar (sthaṇḍila), with cloth, gold, and a brush (kūrca), / provided with a lid and unbroken grain (akṣata), worshipped with the vidyā-mantra, limbs, and heart-mantra.

He should bathe [him] either at the house or in the cremation ground; / or, having bathed [him] with the lustration rites, he should reverently perform the fiery [bath],

acting according to the order of dissolution (saṃhāra); having changed the loincloth and the garment, / [and adorned him] with rudrākṣa rosaries and other ornaments suitable for adornment.

Then, for the initiated and other bearers of the Śaiva ordinances, / and for others as appropriate, turmeric powder (rātricūrṇa) mixed with oil,

along with betel, he should cause to be distributed to all the people. / Then he should fetch a small bier made of sacrificial trees or other unblamed [woods],

measuring the length of a man, with an increase of six aṅgulas, / its length extending up to three hastas, with its width being three-, four-, or five-fifths [of the length],

endowed with proper breadth, its seat woven with odd-numbered cross-bands. / Placing [the body] on the bier whose structure has been fashioned with an upper pinnacle,

provided with hangings of red garlands and cloth, and a canopy. / Or if he is an ascetic of Śiva (śivayogin) who has departed by intentional exit,

having adorned him with all auspicious ornaments, he should carry him out; / having brought such a pure palanquin, he should mount the Śaiva [ascetic upon it].

With musical instruments played loudly and resounding in front, / he is followed and praised from behind by an assembly of those established in the pledge (samayastha),

accompanied by the sound of conches and the sound of chanting. / His kinsmen should follow with heads uncovered,

holding back tears in their eyes, contemplating the transience of cyclic existence. / With his head placed toward the south, his two big toes tied together,

having bound him with a rope of darbha-grass, one should then convey him toward the north-east direction, / carried by initiated persons of equal caste with their sacred threads worn on the right (apasavya),

or by others reciting the astra weapon-mantra, carrying water. / And fire, with smoke, placed in a three-legged pot, should be carried in front of him by another.

One should carry him [to a spot] slightly south of the rest station for a brief rest. / On a very pure stretch of ground, the deceased, with his head to the south,

whether an observant or non-observant brāhmaṇa initiated into Śiva: / whoever carries such a deceased person shall not meet an untimely death.

Having followed him, bathed, and given the funeral water oblation (nirvāpavāri), / devoted, he attains his desired happiness both here and in the hereafter.

A superior should not follow one of a lower caste who is devoid of vows. / Having followed [such a one], he must bathe in water and recite the mantra of the lord of his own caste a hundred times.

Whoever carries and performs the last rites for a deceased Śaiva ascetic (śivayogin) / who is helpless and without a guardian is freed from all misfortunes.

This rule is established for the other triad beginning with the vaiśya. / Now, having reached a clean and level ground not far from water,

or having erected a pavilion or shed there, within it, / having made a square fire pit (kuṇḍa) endowed with a single girdle (mekhalā) six aṅgulas high,

measuring one hasta according to the rule, with that earth in the wind direction (north-west) / having arranged a bare ground altar (sthaṇḍila) similarly, [and] the trench for the pyre measuring four hastas,

two hastas wide and eight aṅgulas deep, / he should make south of the fire pit. Having thus prepared these three, the guru,

having smeared the ground near it with cow dung, / purified, bathed, his body made of mantras, and bearing a water pot consecrated with the astra weapon-mantra (astrālukā),

having proceeded in the clockwise direction to the edge of the bare ground altar, facing north, / with nyāsa performed in reverse order, protected by the weapon-mantra (hetimantra),

having performed internal worship, having touched the astra secondary pitcher (astravardhanī) with the astra weapon-mantra, / and having arranged his own worship with substances sprinkled with that water,

having recited the saṃhitā-mantras, the preceptor, depositing upon himself / the kalās along the path of dissolution together with the causal deities beginning with Brahmā,

and making the hand gesture of Hara in the mode of dissolution, remembering Śiva once, / scattering the scattering-substances (vikira) there, namely kuśa-grass, ashes, and sesame seeds,

having collected [them] according to the rule, he should worship the site-deities of the pyre (citāvāstu). / On the plot divided into five parts, in twenty-five squares,

variegated with five colors corresponding to the earth and other elements, / laid out with bamboo, ropes, and so forth, he should install the site-deities (vāstudevatā).

There, in the center, in five squares, Brahmā together with the Earth; / in the south-west, provided with water, Viṣṇu in four squares;

In the south-east, in four squares, with fire, [he should worship] Rudra; / in the north-west, in four squares, together with wind, Īśvara;

along with space, Īśāna, in the four north-eastern squares. / In the squares in the east and the other [cardinal directions], he should worship the four [guardians] beginning with Śakra.

With their own names, with prostrations, and ending with 'svāhā', he should cast the bali offering. / In the north-eastern direction, having worshipped the Pāśupatāstra in the ritual jug (vardhanī),

and having placed the astra weapon-mantras from trident (triśūla) to thunderbolt in the eight directions, / he should worship above and below the lotus and the disc as well.

Between sesame seeds and darbha grass, he should properly worship Bhava in the maṇḍala. / Having offered a seat beginning with sovereignty (aiśvarya) in the center of the lotus with petals,

he should worship the circle of Śaktis beginning with Manonmanī and ending with Vāmā. / Having thus worshipped the seat in reverse order and having worshipped Śaṅkara along with his limbs,

having consecrated the fire pit (kuṇḍa) as before and worshipped Śakti therein, / having cast in fire devoid of the portion belonging to the flesh-eaters in counter-clockwise fashion,

in the lotus-heart of the fire born through the five consecrations, / having worshipped Śiva as if on the bare ground, and having satiated [him] with black sesame seeds

together with ghee and offerings of the full oblation (pūrṇāhuti), he should then construct the pyre. / Or else, setting aside the maṇḍalas made with five colors,

with consecrated pitchers at the border, through consecrations beginning with gazing, / he should draw the city of Indra in the pyre-trench or on the pedestal,

with red powder, and in its center that of Fire. / The deities of those two should be applied. He should plant pegs at the corners,

in the south-east and [the other corners] in counter-clockwise order: pegs made of dry wood, / with their roots upward and points downward, each having received the astra weapon-mantra.

He should wrap [them] with a thread colored with five colors and with the Kavaca mantra; / or he may wrap [them] all around with a red thread.

The offering to Śiva should be from Śiva's fire, for the sake of protection against evil spirits (rakṣas). / There, having spread a thick bed for the corpse with sacrificial timbers

mixed with sandalwood and agarwood, covered with an inverted cloth, / and having worshipped [it] with the king of astra weapon-mantras, with kuśa grass, flowers, and sesame seeds,

having rubbed the deceased with earth, with cow dung, and with water, / bathed, fumigated, and there [smeared] with ash along the nine channels,

wearing a sacred thread and garments, without regard to his previous caste, / having worshipped Śiva in the south-east of the fire, on a kuśa seat to the south,

of him who has been purified through gazing and the like and through the five fixations (dhāraṇā), / then, in the cavity of the heart-lotus of this mantra-body,

the [soul], colored by the reservoir of karman to be experienced and not having attained a supporting body, / he should withdraw with the Great Net (mahājāla) and place into his liṅga.

“Oṃ hūṃ hāṃ”, and then “haṃ hāṃ hūṃ”—this is considered the Great Net. / Having uttered at the end the name of the initiation of the dead ending with a salutation, the focused guru,

having withdrawn the body of knowledge (vidyādeha) and his body, those five kalās, / and having imposed Śiva together with his six limbs, should offer one hundred oblations with the root mantra.

Then, for the presence of consciousness, he should purify the tattvas / taking up [the kalās] beginning with Nivṛtti, either simultaneously or in succession.

He should then worship in the fire those kalās together with their presiding deities, as before. / Taking the possessor of the mark (liṅgin) from the mark (liṅga) by means of striking and the rest,

he should unite [it] there as before: birth, karman, and qualification; / enjoyment, dissolution, and purification of the tattvas and of the currents (srotas);

the concealment of the state of being a bound soul (paśu), the severing of the loosening of bonds (pāśa), / the burning thereof in reverse order must be performed, or the raising of the bound soul (paśu) from the cause.

Having detached the bound soul (paśu) through that prior rite of liberation (nirvāṇa), / he should likewise purify the other bonds (pāśa) further above.

According to the spoken ritual manual (karmapaddhati), up to Śiva, / having extracted [it] from the fire at the end of the fire oblation (homa), he should unite [it] in the stainless state,

united with which the individual soul (aṇu) never again becomes dependent on another. / Having performed the end of all remaining bonds (pāśa) and worshipped the Lord, he should dismiss [him].

The guru, withdrawing the body of knowledge (vidyādeha) and [his body] into its own state, / and likewise withdrawing the Lord of the bare ground altar (sthaṇḍila) into his own state, the guru,

approaching the corpse, placing it on the bed, covered with kuśa grass, / head to the south and feet to the north, provided with sruc and sruva ladles for the liberated—

for an ācārya and for a sādhaka; but for someone other than those two, devoid thereof— / with frankincense, agarwood, camphor, sandalwood, and superior woods,

having covered [it], bringing the fire from the fire pit (kuṇḍa), he should cast it at the head. / Having thrown honey, fat, oil, and clarified butter, when the fire is blazing,

raising the worshipped sruc ladle filled with clarified butter, honey, and milk, / the guru, standing at the head, facing the northern direction,

should pour the stream into the mouth of the fire, uttering these words: / 'You, O fire, are the competent Time; brought by Time itself,

receive this great oblation purified by mantras in the corpse!' / Then, having thrown the sruc and sruva ladles face downward there,

the guru, directing four men skilled in the funerary rites, / moving counter-clockwise, taking the weapon-jug (khaṅgavardhanī),

lifting it up and placing it on his left shoulder, with his head covered and looking away, / letting out a continuous stream, accompanied clockwise by those abiding in their duty,

having circumambulated in counter-clockwise fashion, / he should throw that vardhanī jug face down at that place from which that weapon-jug was taken up.

Then, going to a reservoir of water, bathing, and spreading excellent kuśa grass, / above that, in counter-clockwise order, first the Praṇava, the Hṛdaya mantra,

[saying] 'O pure soul', endowed with the name beginning with Īśa and ending with Śānta, / or the name preceded by Skanda and ending with Gaṇeśa, or followed by Bhava,

having spoken [this] as appropriate, the mantra-practitioner should thrice satiate [it] ending with 'svadhā'. / Having bathed again, facing north, [reciting] the Śivasaṃhitā,

all of them, or one hundred of the Astra mantras, or twice that, / the pall-bearers, and likewise those who set fire to the corpse,

having thus observed the impurity caused by death, should return to their own homes. / Biting neem leaves, restrained, at the door of the house,

having sipped water (ācamana), and touching fire, water, cow dung, and white mustard seeds, / they should enter, slowly placing their foot upon a stone.

For an initiated disciple (śiṣṭa) observing the pledge (samaya) who lacks the higher initiation, / the initiation of liberation (nirvāṇadīkṣā) must be performed if he had applied his mind, thinking 'Śiva is mine'.

Even for one who has perished, that post-mortem rite (antyeṣṭi) culminating in purification of the tattvas is prescribed here. / [For those who died] by water, fire, weapons, or especially by elephant, lion,

tiger, or other creatures, or by the fall of a tree and the like, / by striking with one's own hand, hanging, binding with ropes, or throwing down,

for those whose death occurred by other such means, the rite is as before. / For those whose bodies are not found, as well as for those with mutilated bodies,

and for those with bodies afflicted by serious diseases such as consumption, leprosy, and smallpox, / he should perform all rites on a body fashioned from kuśa grass and other materials.

A dead person who is maimed in limb or suffering from smallpox and similar diseases / he may burn in ordinary fire, or bury without mantras,

or cast into a sacred bath (tīrtha) such as the Gaṅgā; if entering into fire and the like / is desired for the sake of religious merit, knowing this, he should execute that rite.

With kuśa and darbha grass, or leaves produced from palāśa tied with thread, / one should make an effigy of flour bathed in the five cow-products,

Or have an effigy made of cow dung according to the desired measure; / and upon this, the ritual should be performed as described before.

One should burn that effigy, however, sprinkled with ghee, honey, and milk, / in the case of [death on] a Bhadra day, a constellation with three padas, on Friday, Tuesday, or Thursday.

For those whose burning or death is a cause of the destruction of their lineage, / for that purpose a re-cremation should be diligently performed in this manner.

For deceased males who have not received the tonsure (cūḍā), there is the rite of the pit (burial); / for them there is no cremation, no bali offering, and no water-rite.

For males, either cremation or the pit-rite may be performed before tonsure; / when a child under two years dies, there is neither fire nor water-rite.

For ascetics (yati) or knowers of reality (jñānin), the rite should be the pit-rite / filled with salt, without bali offerings, water, and boiled rice.

For one who has received the tonsure, there should be cremation accompanied by rice balls (piṇḍa) and water; / every year, with growth [in age], there should be an increase in the rice ball or the water-rite.

At ten years of age it should last ten days, and especially beyond that. / As for the rite in the pit: having purified the body on a plastered [surface],

Spreading darbha grass upon a bed of sand, placing the head to the north, / and having carried it on a litter or the like to the cremation ground on clean ground,

One should dig the earth to the measure of an arm's length, the width of the bed; / placing [the body] and offering unbroken grains and the rest, one should silently worship with perfumes and other offerings.

Having placed the dead there with the head to the south, one should fill [the pit] with earth; / or for yogins, one should dig to the measure of a staff (daṇḍa) or half a staff,

Or having filled it with salt, then in the area nearby, / right there, endowed with a shrine, either a liṅga on a pedestal,

Or having fashioned and established an icon (bera) or his own form, one should worship it. / There, rice balls and water, an ancestral rite (śrāddha), or whatever else, is not desired.

Binding the thumbs and throwing betel (tāmbūla) upon him, / or [such rites] for these devotees, O eminent sages, are not approved.

One should carry out the cremation of those who died by lightning, fire, water, and the like. / If a husband has gone to another land, having passed years,

Only after twelve years have passed should [the wife] practice the vow of widowhood, / if it is entirely unknown whether he is dead or not dead.

Having made a four-sided maṇḍala (vedāśra), thereon above three pegs, / having thrown husks into a vessel, one should burn [them] until reduced to sparks of fire.

In this manner one should withdraw the fire for the cremation of the deceased. / Rice mixed with milk, accompanied by ghee remaining from the fire oblation (homa),

One should place on the ears, eyes, mouth, throat, and navel with the heart-mantra (hṛdaya); / with the heart-mantra one casts gold fragments into the nine apertures.

One should place rice mixed with milk with the Vāmadeva mantra; / one should cut the binding of the thumbs with the Aghorāstra mantra.

Then the sapiṇḍa relatives, together with the brothers, should let their garments hang down; / then all, circumambulating it with the edge of their garments,

The cremator, taking a full water pot and making three circumambulations, / should throw it down to the left of the body with the Astramantra.

He should sprinkle water from the broken pot upon the seats of the vital breaths (prāṇa); / at the end of the bath, having drunk the five cow-products or ghee, he should whisper mantras over the corpse.

Having then given gifts according to one's capacity for the weariness and the cremation, / water with sesame (tilodaka) should be offered, accompanied by the name of the deceased.

Such ritual actions should be performed without the purification of the tattvas (tattvaśuddhi)
For those devotees of Maheśvara endowed with the funeral rite (antyeṣṭi).

Every day a water offering (tarpaṇa) should be made in the name of Īśa, Skanda, and the others; / three separate water offerings should be made on the first day.

Each day one should increase it by one, separately up to the twelfth [day]; / seventy-five water offerings are counted, [and] for each meal

One should prepare two hundred and fifty-five in number, / or just a single meal for the satisfaction of the triad beginning with Īśa.

At the end of cremation, one should give a covering for the naked (nagnapracchādana) accompanied by cloth and raw rice / to an initiated householder for the sake of the deceased.

At the end of the water offering, one should present a bali offering in a river or the like, or in the house; / for a perpetual student or ascetic (naiṣṭhika), daily water offerings and bali offerings should not be performed.

Only on a single day, at the end of cremation, with the three [mantras] beginning with Īśa, / having made a water offering for his sake, one should worship Śiva for his sake.

Those free from sorrow should dispel the grief of attached, foolish-minded men / in an assembly, by recollecting the true nature of things:

For those who observe Śiva's vows and those Śaivas who are accompanied by their wives, / there is no cause of grief whatsoever for those discerning ones.

For the self (ātman) is all-pervading, eternal, and conscious, ever like Śiva; / there is no destruction of it in this world; if it [seems to] exist, it is not so.

Due to the absence of the causes of the self's enjoyment, / its destruction, decay, and death are spoken of metaphorically because of the non-perception of its own qualities.

Even when favorable to one's own self, one may act unfavorably; / he whose mind does not desire the departure of what is undesirable,

How could he become omniscient at the end of the body, as declared for one initiated into Śiva? / This experience of pleasure and pain belongs to consciousness, and the means of that experience

Is this body; separation from it is declared to be exceedingly beneficial. / One who seeks substance in the human plantain trunk that lacks substance,

Resembling a water bubble, is completely deluded. / When the body composed of five [elements] has dissolved into the five elements,

Through actions arising from one's own body, what lamentation is there in that? / The earth will go to destruction, and the ocean, and the gods;

How will the mortal world, resembling foam, not go to destruction? / Since the deceased, helpless, consumes the phlegm and tears shed by relatives,

Therefore, one should not weep, but the ritual should be performed according to one's capacity. / On the second day one may or may not cause the cremation of the remaining limbs,

Accompanied by ghee and milk, and joined by the sapiṇḍa relatives; / or on the third or the first day one should perform the gathering [of bones] from the funeral pyre.

Taking an earthen vessel filled with milk or water, / having made a tripod of sticks there, one should place the elements there.

Or one may perform the collection of bones (asthisaṃgrahaṇa) without gathering [the ashes], / on the first, third, fifth, or seventh day, into a new earthen vessel,

The collection of bones for Brahmins and the other [castes] in order; / with roasted barley meal, parched grain, cooked rice, and cakes, one should cast a bali offering in the four directions.

This is the piśāca offering; one should perform it for their satisfaction. / Collecting the limbs limb by limb, one should place them [in the vessel] with their respective mantras.

Having placed it outside the village for casting into the Gaṅgā or other waters, / on that day, or at the end of a fortnight, at the end of a month, after three months,

After six months, at the completion of a year, or beyond that, one should deposit it. / Having deposited it there in that sacred water (tīrtha), having bathed with sesame seeds,

Having made the ancestral water offering, one should also make water offerings to the gods and others; / one should give gifts according to capacity and offer rice balls on that ground.

Those who are connected through discipleship to the same guru, and those related to the guru, / should abandon ritual work other than the daily rites, such as recitation, for three days.

Initiates other than them who stand upon the Śaiva path, whether householders or non-householders, / should observe one day for death-impurity.

Householders who follow worldly ways should not transgress worldly custom; / therefore, initiates should maintain social conformity.

For this person who bears the Śiva vow, there is neither death-impurity nor birth-impurity, / because he is independent of previous life-stages and the cause of transmigration has ceased for him.

Even for a householder who remains in a former life-stage, if through initiation / the seed of transmigration has ceased for him, being a knower endowed with right ritual action,

it lasts only for an instant and ceases merely upon bathing. / Purification for a Brahmin takes ten days; for a Kṣatriya, it is twelve days;

purification for a Vaiśya is fifteen days; for a Śūdra, it is indeed a month. / When four wives have been wed by a Brahmin,

birth-impurity is to be observed respectively for ten, six, three, and one day. / The birth-impurity of their sons and the rest is according to traditional opinion regarding the mother's side.

If a child is born dead from a full-term pregnancy, purification is instantaneous through bathing; / in the loss of a fetus of a male or female, the number of months is prescribed for the mother.

Before naming, before the appearance of teeth, and likewise before the sacred thread ceremony, / bathing, one day, and three days are taught respectively [as the impurity period].

Beyond that, it is ten days for agnatic kinsmen; it is declared for the three [castes] / before tonsure, before the eighth year, and before marriage, in due order as before.

For brothers, once the naming ceremony is performed, it is always ten days; / for parents, impurity is ten days everywhere, O twice-born!

For a married daughter, there is a pakṣiṇī period at the death of parents or uterine brothers; / and at the passing of their sons, O best of the twice-born, there is a pakṣiṇī.

A night situated between two days, or a day situated between two nights, / is called a pakṣiṇī; knowing this, one should perform the rites accordingly.

Three days [are prescribed] for sapiṇḍas; anywhere [else], one day of impurity / is prescribed by rule for the class of samānodakas.

Beyond the eruption of teeth, bathing alone is proclaimed here for them. / For a Brahmin up to the tying of the muñjā grass girdle, and for a Kṣatriya up to the taking up of the bow,

for a Vaiśya up to the taking of the goad, and for a Śūdra up to the taking of two cloths; / beyond that, full impurity occurs if one dies, O best of men!

When tonsure has been completed, a Kṣatriya is pure in six days, / a Vaiśya is pure in nine days, and a Śūdra in twelve days.

All this is prescribed for agnatic kinsmen, O eminent sages! / When the ācārya dies, there is an impurity of three nights;

for his son and his wife, it is remembered as a day and night. / When a birth-impurity occurs while death-impurity has arisen,

the birth-impurity is purified by the death-impurity; the birth-impurity does not purify the death-impurity. / If another birth-impurity occurs during a birth-impurity, O best of the twice-born,

purification occurs along with the remainder of the first; so also with death-impurity during death-impurity. / If a death-impurity occurs during a birth-impurity, or a birth-impurity occurs during a death-impurity,

purification is achieved by the greater [period] there, and one is not purified by the fewer days. / When ten days have elapsed [without knowledge], one becomes impure for three nights.

When a birth[-impurity] has elapsed, it is one day; beyond a year, it is just a bath. / For one who had performed the daily fire ritual and has died, [impurity is counted] from cremation;

for one who had not established the fires, impurity is proclaimed from the day of death. / As for Māheśvara Śūdras who bear sacred ash and rudrākṣa,

their purification in birth and in death is on the fifteenth day. / Likewise for Rudrakanyās, and it is also approved for the five ācāryas.

The same applies to lower anuloma castes who bear sacred ash and rudrākṣa. / The sapiṇḍas should not touch the one who cremates; that is taught in this regard.

Death-impurity is twice as great as birth-impurity; menstrual impurity is twice as great as death-impurity; / birth-impurity [for the mother] is twice as great as menstrual impurity; and [impurity for] the crematory attendant is twice that.

Those corpse-bearers who have touched a corpse outside the village / must stay [outside] until the sighting of stars or until the sighting of the sun.

After touching fire at the end, they should drink pañcagavya or clarified butter. / This procedure is proclaimed for ordinary mortals.

Those Māheśvara Śūdras who are proclaimed as weavers and the like, / and likewise for those who know Śiva's songs and attend upon Śiva's hermitage,

purification for a devadāsī is declared to take twenty days. / The impurity of male and female servants is appropriate to the family of the master.

No impurity is accepted for pratiloma castes, O best of the twice-born! / The lineage of Rudrakanyās is proclaimed to derive from the mother;

likewise, the lineage of devadāsīs is said to derive from the mother. / For kings and purohitas, there is no impurity from death or birth.

For an initiate (samayistha), there is never impurity with respect to daily rites, / whether he is a householder or non-householder, endowed with vows in every respect.

For those endowed with the nirvāṇadīkṣā whose minds are devoted to ritual practice, / and for householders, there is no impurity in daily or occasional rites,

and in optional rites, since impurity ceases through bathing; / and for an ascetic, bathing is not prescribed if they eat food cooked separately.

This procedure is declared for rites for one's own sake or rites for the sake of others; / or one may abandon rites for the sake of others for the sake of social conformity.

Other than brothers, sons, and fathers, relatives are remembered as agnates (jñāti); / no impurity is prescribed when women among agnates are born.

It is to be observed up to seven generations for men among them in death and birth; / even there, impurity lasts three days beyond five generations.

Beyond that, a pakṣiṇī is to be observed, if the kinship is known. / When three wives, beginning with a Kṣatriya, are wed according to rule by a Brahmin,

by a reduction of one, two, or three days for those born from a Brahmin, and so on; / but purification for those born illegitimately increases by two, three, or four days.

There is no ritual impurity for pratiloma castes, because they are perpetually impure; / and women who are common [courtesans] are never pure.

Kings consecrated with the royal bath are always pure; / great men and ministers are also pure, if they are devoted to the Great Lord.

Those Śūdras who are devoted to the rites of Śiva and endowed with sacred ash and the like / are pure in twenty days; others, in twenty-five days.

When a matter related to death- or birth-impurity causes the cessation of daily rites, / his purification takes as many days as those days lasted.

The expiation for that purpose consists of eating barley gruel at night, / preceded by bathing, worship, tending the fire, recitation, and fire oblation at the three junctures of the day.

When there is union [of rites] without loss, then at the end of it there is [an expiation of] three nights; / when there is a loss without union, there too at the end there is [an expiation of] three days.