The Antiquities of Orissa v1.c10.70.4

v1.c10.70.4

Manu even goes the length of prohibiting husbands from looking at their wives when engaged in the mysteries of their toilette, and of denouncing the sight of nude females as sinful.⁴⁹ The veil, as a mark of propriety and modesty before seniors and strangers, is everywhere insisted upon, and this idea is carried to the ridiculous extent of prohibiting the offering of the funeral cake to a grandfather without first covering the cake to the mother with *kuśa* grass, as emblematic of her veil, for even in spirit she should not appear before her father-in-law with her face uncovered.⁵⁰ In the case of men not only is nudity prohibited, but even a single garment is held [ 86 ] insufficient for propriety. Manu forbids a single garment when at meals,⁵¹ and the *Viṣṇu Purāṇa* ordains that "a man must neither bathe, nor sleep, nor rinse his mouth, whilst naked; he must not wash his mouth, nor perform any sacred rite, with his waistband unfastened; and he must not offer oblations to fire, nor sacrifice to the gods, nor wash his mouth, nor salute a Brāhmaṇa, nor utter a prayer with only one garment on".⁵² In the *Sāmayācārika-dharma-sūtra* of Āpastamba, even a Brahmacāri, just returned from his noviciate, is required to dress himself with a *jāmā* (*kañcuka*) over his body-clothes, and to move about with either shoes or pattens on.⁵³