History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.220

v5.c71.s1.220

The Par. M. quotes a smṛti text¹⁴⁵ and says that that is prāyaścitta whereby the 'citta' (the mind) of a repentant sinner is made generally (prāyaśaḥ) free (from emotion i. e brought to a normal state) by the *parṣad* (assembly of learned brāhmaṇas). Here 'prāyaḥ' seems to be taken as equal to 'prāyaśaḥ' and 'citta' has its usual sense. In Sāyaṇa's¹⁴⁶ comment on the Sāmavidhāna Br. I 5 1 another derivation is suggested viz that ‘prāyaḥ’ is composed of two parts ‘pra’ and ‘ayaḥ’ and means ‘happening or finding’ (of the non-performance of what is ordained) and ‘citta’ means ‘knowledge’; and so religious observances after knowing a certain happening are called prāyaścittas. The Pr Vi p 3 and Pr. Tattva p 467 quote Hārīta and give¹⁴⁷ yet another derivation (from ‘prayata’ pure and ‘cita’ collected), in accordance with which ‘prāyaścitta’ means such actions as *tapas*, gifts and sacrifices whereby a man becomes purified (*prayata*) and destroys his accumulated sins (‘cita’ being equal to ‘upacita’), just as clothes are made clean by the employment of salts, moist heat, putting in boiling water on a fire, and washing in water Hence, as the Mit says, the word prāyaścitta conventionally¹⁴⁸ denotes a certain act or rite of the *naimittika* type (since it takes place only when an occasion arises) intended for the destruction of sin (and therefore being desired for removal of sin it may also be called *kāmya*) The Par. M quotes verses from Bṛhaspati's¹⁴⁹ work of which the section on prāyaścitta holds at the beginning and at the conclusion thereof that prāyaścitta is *naimittika*¹⁵⁰ (to be performed when a cause or occasion arises), Jābāla q in the Pr. Prakāśa holds that prāyaścitta partakes of the nature of both naimittika and kāmya actions. The Pr. Prakāśa finds fault with the definitions of prāyaścitta proposed by the Kalpataru, Śūlapāni and others and ultimately arrives at the conclusion that those alone are prāyaścittas which are so spoken of by the learned, just as on Jaimini II. 1.32 (tac-codakeṣu mantrākhyā) Bhaṭṭācārya explains that mantras are those which the respectable *yājñikas* and those who studied the Vedas so designate150a.