History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v4.c63.1250

v4.c63.1250

The smṛtis state that when a man knowingly committed a sin, penances did not necessarily remove the otherworldly consequences of the sin altogether but the sinner became fit to be associated with (Yāj. III. 226). In the case of the *patita*, even his son born after he committed a grave sin was held to be patita by most writers of smṛtis (Yāj. II. 140, Viṣṇu Dh. S. 15. 35-36, Kauṭ. III. 5)¹¹⁶⁹. But in the case of the daughter a difference was mercifully made. Vas. (13. 51-53)¹¹⁷⁰ states "the sages say that one born of a patita becomes a patita, except a female child, since she is to go to another (person as his wife); one may marry her without accepting any wealth (of her *patita* father) along with her". Yāj. III. 261 also says that the daughter of a patita may be married after making her fast and after making her leave everything (belonging to the patita father) in her father's house. Viśvarūpa (on Yāj. III. 257) quotes a prose passage from Hārīta to the following effect: the daughter of a patita should have fasted one day and night, should take a bath without clothes, should put on white and new garments in the morning, should loudly repeat thrice 'I do not belong to him (my patita father) nor is he anyone to me' and then she may be married at a sacred place (river etc.) or in one's (the bridegroom's) house.