History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v3.c40.61.3

v3.c40.61.3

The pañcagavya thus prepared is to be placed near the fire, then it is to be stirred to the accompaniment of ‘āpo hi ṣṭhā (Ṛg. X. 9. 1-3) and then the mantra ‘mā nastoke’ (Ṛg. I. 114. 8) is to be repeated over it, it may be then offered into fire with green darbhas not less than seven to the accompaniment of ‘Irāvatī’ (Ṛg. VII. 99. 3), ‘idam Viṣṇur’ (Ṛg. I. 22. 17), ‘mā nastoke’ (Ṛg. X. 114. 8), and the śaṁvatī verse (Ṛg. X. 9. 4) and then the remainder is to be drunk by one who prepares it with the verse noted below.¹⁸⁵³ The vessel in which the pañcagavya is to be prepared must be of copper or gold or of palāśa or lotus leaves (Par. M. II. 1 p. 434 quoting Prajāpati). Viṣṇu Dh. S. 54. 7 and Atri 300 say that a śūdra drinking pañcagavya and a brāhmaṇa drinking surā (liquor distilled from flour) are equally sinful and fall in hell. But Devala 61 and Parāśara XI. 3 and 27 allow śūdras (and women) to take pañcagavya but without Vedic mantras. Therefore the digests like Śūdrakamalākara (p. 42) say that a śūdra can take pañcagavya only as a prāyaś-citta (penance) for a sin and not otherwise. Pañcagavya is also called *brahmakūrca*. Atri 301 declares that the dung of a cow that eats unclean things is not to be employed for purification. A smṛti passage declares that he in whose house there is not even one cow with her calf becomes devoid of all maṅgalas (auspicious things) and darkness does not leave him.