History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.46.3

v2.c34.46.3

134 say that cleansing of the body is to be so effected first with water and then with earth that foul smell and filth will be totally removed. Devala (quoted in the Gṛ. R. p. 147) says that respectable people do not emphasize the number of times mentioned in the smṛtis, but they say that cleansing should be carried on till one feels that it is all right.¹⁵³⁰ The Smṛtyarthasāra¹⁵³¹ (p. 19) following Dakṣa V. 12 says that at night only half of the *śauca* prescribed for the day is required, only one-fourth of it is prescribed for the ailing and only one-eighth when a man is on a journey and that no special number of lumps of earth are prescribed for women, śūdras, boys whose upanayana has not been performed. In cleansing one is not to employ stones, clods of earth, and green twigs cut off for the purpose from herbs and trees (Āp. Dh. S. I. 11. 30. 30, Gaut. IX. 15) nor is one to use earth from inside a river or water reservoir or from a temple, from an ant-hill or from the hiding places of rats or from dung-hills or what is left after being used for a prior cleansing (Vas. Dh. S. VI. 17) nor what is taken from a road or cemetery, nor should one use earth that has worms, coals, or bones or gravel in it. Dakṣa V. 7 prescribes that for the first time as much earth as will fill half of the outstretched hand and for the second time half of that is to be taken and so on.¹⁵³² The lump of earth should not be bigger than a myrobalan fruit (Kūrmapurāṇa in Sm. C. I. p. 182).