History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c71.s1.90.3

v5.c71.s1.90.3

79) states that sins are transferred (or spread) from man to man like a drop of oil on water by sitting or sleeping together or by using the same conveyance or by speaking with or dining in the same row. Devala and Chāgaleya q. by the Mit. on Yāj. III 261, the Pr. Prakarana (p. 101), the Pr. V. (p. 145), the Par M. (II. part 1. p 28) and others contain similar verses. Acc. to Pr. Prakāśa (folio 75a), in order to become *patita* one must simultaneously practise these four together, if practised separately, there is no *pātitya* but only *doṣa*. Parāśara (I. 25-26) states that in the Kṛta age a man became *patita* by speaking with a *patita*, in Tretā by touching him, in Dvāpara by partaking of food prepared in his house and in Kali by actually committing a sinful act and that in the Kṛta age a district was abandoned (if any one therein became *patita*), in Tretā the village, in Dvāpara the family (of the *patita* was abandoned) and in Kali only the actual perpetrator himself (is abandoned as *patita*). It is clear from this that such contacts with a patita as speaking with him,⁶³ touching him or eating food (in the house of a *patita*) were not regarded as involving a man in the same sin as that of the actual perpetrator. Speaking, touching and eating are also actions (*karman*) and Parāśara did not include them in the word 'karmaṇā' which refers only to the actual perpetration of a murder, surāpāna etc.