History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.160.3

v3.c40.160.3

about the rajasvalā (vide Āp. gṛ. 8. 12,¹⁹¹⁹ Hira. gṛ. I. 24. 7, Bhār. gṛ. I. 20, Baud. gṛ. I. 7. 22-36, Baud. Dh. S. I. 5. 139). Vas. Dh. S. V. 7-9 contains the story of Indra and the boon given to women and also the rules about rajasvalā (adding that she should sleep on the ground, should not sleep by day, should not eat flesh, should not look at the planets, should not laugh). When Vas. Dh. S. V. 8. and Viṣṇu Dh. S. 51. 16 forbid the eating of the food of a rajasvalā, what is meant is (according to the Gṛ. R. and other digests) that the food cooked for her or owned by her should not be eaten. Laghu-Hārīta 38 prescribes that a rajasvalā may eat food from her own hand used as a plate; Vṛddha-Hārīta (XI. 210-11) says the same and adds that if she be a widow, then she should not take food for three days and that one whose husband is living should have only one meal a day. Rajasvalā women were also not to touch one another. Viṣṇu Dh. S. (22. 73-74) prescribes that if a rajasvalā touches another rajasvalā of lower varṇa she should observe a fast from that time till the fourth day when she takes the purificatory bath; while if she touches another rajasvalā woman of the same varṇa or higher varṇa, she has to bathe and then take her food. More elaborate rules are laid down by Aṅgiras 48 (who prescribes pañcagavya), Atri 279-283, Āp. (verse) VII. 20-22, Bṛhad-Yama III. 64-68, Parāśara VII. 11-15.