Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c9.32

c9.32

When leaving the place the relations, in token of their contempt for the excommunicated person, turn their left side to him and then go home after taking a bath. Henceforth it is forbidden to speak to the excommunicated person, to sit by him, or in any way to come into intercourse with him; he who speaks to him has to perform penance and he who continues to be in intercourse with him for a year shall himself be an outcast. The Patita is excluded from all religious ceremonies and businesses of his caste, he is even disinherited (cf. § 24) and if he is the eldest son he loses his right of primogeniture as well as the privileges connected with it. After his death he goes to hell (Gaut. 21,6); moreover no funeral sacrifice is performed for him but instead of the offering to the dead a female slave upsets a pot of water on the day of his death with the words "drink this" (Vi. 22,57). Excommunicated women are treated in the same way; yet however she should be allowed sustenance and a place of abode should be assigned to her in the neighbourhood of the family house (Y. 3, 297 etc., cf. § 19).