History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c34.98

v2.c34.98

Manu IV. 203, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 64. 1-2 and 15-16, Yāj. I. 159, Dakṣa II. 43, Veda-Vyāsa-smṛti III. 7-8, Śaṅkha VIII. 11 and others say that one must daily bathe in natural water, i. e. in rivers, in tanks connected with temples, in lakes, in deep reservoirs and in mountain springs. One should not bathe in water belonging to an individual (i. e. a well or reservoir dug or dammed by him &c.) but if no water is otherwise available one may bathe with such water after removing three or five lumps of clay (from the bottom of the reservoir¹⁵⁶⁶) or three or five jars from the well. The idea is that either the private owner would participate in the merit of the bath (as Baud. Dh. S. II. 3. 7 remarks) or that the bather incurs a fourth part of the sin of the owner of the water (Manu IV. 201-202). If no such water is available or one is unable to go to a river &c. for a bath one may bathe in the court-yard of one's house with water drawn in a vessel (from a well &c.) till his clothes are wetted. The words 'nadī' and 'garta' (used in Manu IV. 203) are defined as follows: a nadī (river) is one that has a stream of water at least 8000 bows in length, while all other streams are called garta (a pool). As in the months of Śrāvaṇa and Bhādrapada all rivers are full of mud (*rajasvalā* is used in a double sense) one should not bathe in them in those months, except in rivers that directly reach the sea.¹⁵⁶⁷ But even in these months one may bathe in muddy rivers at the time of upākarma or utsarga, or on the death of a person or on the eclipse of the sun or the moon. Vide Viṣṇu Dh. S. 64. 17 which says that out of water drawn in a pot, water standing in a reservoir, a spring, a river, water in which noble men of the past bathed, Ganges water, each succeeding one is holier than each preceding one for a bath.¹⁵⁶⁸