History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.456

v2.c24.s1.456

Hinduism has not been an avowedly proselytizing religion. In theory it could not be so. For about two thousand years the caste system has reigned supreme and no one can in theory be admitted to the Hindu fold who is not born in it. A Hindu may lose caste, be excommunicated and driven out of the fold of Hinduism, if he be guilty of very serious lapses and refuses to undergo the prāyaścittas prescribed by the smṛtis. Gaut. 20. 15 states that he who was guilty of a misdeed for which death was prescribed as a penance became purified only by dying. But Gaut. himself prescribed death (21. 7) as penance only for the sins of brāhmaṇa-murder, drinking spirituous liquor and incest. Even as regards these three, lesser penances were prescribed by some smṛtis as alternatives (e. g. vide Manu XI. 72, 74-8, 92, 108). When the sinner performed the prāyaścitta prescribed by the śāstras, he was to be welcomed by his relatives, who took a bath along with him in a holy river or the like and threw therein an unused jar filled with water; they were not to find fault with him and were to completely associate with him in all ways (Manu XI. 186-187, Yāj. III. 295, Vas. 15, 20, Gaut. 20. 10-14). Vas. 15. 17 says that those who were *patita* were to be re-admitted to all social intercourse when they performed the prescribed penances (patitānāṁ tu caritavratānām pratyuddhāraḥ). But if the sinner refused to undergo the prescribed prāyaścitta, then a peculiar procedure called ghaṭasphoṭa (breaking a jar) was prescribed. In such a case the sinner's relatives (sapiṇḍas) made a slave girl whose face was turned to the south thrust aside with her foot an earthen jar full of water so that all water flowed out of it, then the relatives were to observe mourning for one day and night (as he was deemed to be dead to them) and from that day they were to stop speaking or sitting with him, and all other social intercourse and he was to be given no inheritance (vide Manu XI. 183-185, Yāj. III. 294, Gaut. 20. 2-7). In this way the obstinate sinner went out of the Hindu fold. The ancient smṛtis do not expressly prescribe any rites for bringing into the brahmanic or Hindu fold a person who or whose ancestors did not belong to it. But as Hinduism has been extremely tolerant928a (barring a few exceptional instances) it had a wonderful power of quiet and unobtrusive absorption. If a person, though of foreign ancestry, conformed to Hindu social usages in outward behaviour, in course of time his descendants became absorbed into the vast Hindu community.