History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.592

v5.c71.s1.592

*SAUMYAKṚCCHRA*—According to Yāj III 321 this penance lasts for six days, in the first five of which one subsists in succession upon oilcake alone, foamy scum of boiled rice alone, butter-milk alone, water alone and *saktus* (barley) alone and on the last day a total fast is observed The Mit, Madanapārijāta p 717, Pr Sāra p 178 and other digests state that one has to partake of the five ingredients in quantities just sufficient to keep body and soul together. Jābāla (quoted by the Mit., Par M. II part 2 p 183 and others) makes it a penance of four days' duration, in the first three of which one partakes successively of oilcake, *saktus* and butter-milk and observes a fast on the 4th day. Atri (128–129) also mentions it. The Pr. Prakāśa (quoting Brahmapurāna) speaks³⁵⁴ of another variety of six days' duration, on the first of which there is a complete fast and on the last of which the sinner subsists on *saktus* alone and in the intervening four days he subsists on the thick gruel of barley cooked in cow's urine.