Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c11.48

c11.48

The impurity on account of death² is parallel to the impurity caused by a birth and like the latter its term is generally 10 days. It is not improbable that the birth impurity of which the term of 10 days is probably based on a natural ground was responsible for the fixation of an equal term for death impurity too. This period undergoes important fluctuations according to the age, sex and the position of the deceased and the nearness of relationship. Thus the death of a still-born child or a child which dies soon after birth or before teething, causes no impurity. The death of a married woman makes impure only her husband and his relations, but not her own blood-relations. At the death of the father of the mother there is an impurity only of three days. For people of lower status than that of the Brahmans the period of impurity may in general extend from 11 days to a month (Vi. 22, 1—4, 26 f., 33, 42 etc.). So long as the impurity exists one may eat only purchased or presented foods and no flesh, sleep only alone on earth, and one cannot beg or study or have intercourse with any one for fear of defiling him (Gaut. 14, 37—39; Vas. 4, 14 f.; Vi. 19, 14—17; 22, 6 f. etc.). After the expiration of the term of impurity the ceremony of purification takes place. Women are impure not only through a death and their low origin, but also by the menses, which even according to a Vedic legend are the result of a sin which Indra drew upon himself by killing Vṛtra. Only on the fourth day the menstruating woman is pure by a bath. A bath with the clothes on is necessary after touching a menstruating woman, a woman in child-bed, a carrier of a dead-body, a Caṇḍāla, a dog etc. (Vas. 5, 4—9; Gaut. 14, 30ff. etc.).