History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.300

v5.c71.s1.300

Though the smṛtis have entered into very great details about the prāyaścittas for different individual lapses, still they cannot be supposed to have dealt with every lapse. Therefore, Gaut. (19. 18-20) provides that these acts (viz. Vedic recitation, *tapas*, fasting, gifts &c ) may be optionally performed, when no (particular penance) has been prescribed, that for grave sins difficult penances and for trivial faults easy ones may be prescribed and that Kṛcchra, Atikṛcchra and Cāndrāyaṇa are penances for all sins.²⁰⁰ Manu XI 209 (= Viṣṇu 54. 34) provides that for the expiation of offences for which no particular atonement has been prescribed, let (the pariṣad) prescribe a penance after considering the (offender's) strength and the nature of the offence. Parāśara (XI. 55-56) provides that the recitation of the Gāyatrī ten thousand times is the best penance for all sins and that Cāndrāyaṇa, Yāvaka, Tulāpuruṣa and serving cows destroy all sins Yāj. III. 265 provides that a man is purified from all sins by undergoing the penance for cow-killing or by Cāndrāyaṇa, observance for a month of the milk *vrata* or by Parāka. Manu XI. 117 provides for all *upapātakas* except the sin of sexual intercourse by one who is in the stage of Vedic student the penance prescribed for *govadha* or cāndrāyaṇa.