History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.193.2

v5.c72.193.2

73) adds that they should not eat flesh for three days. Vas. (4. 14-15) lays down that the relatives who returned from the cemetery should sit down for three days on mats and fast, that if they are unable (to fast for three days) they should subsist on food bought in the market or obtained unasked. Yāj. III 17 and Pār. III. 10 ⁵⁴⁹ provide that for the night they should put milk and water in an earthen vessel in the open space (on a *śikya*) with the words 'O departed one! bathe here (in the water) and drink this milk'. Yāj III. 17, Paithīnasi, Manu V. 84, Pār. gr. III 10, and others state that the relatives of the departed should perform their own daily rites to be performed in the *śrauta* fires (such as Agnihotra and Darśapūrnamāsa) and in the *smārta* fire (such as morning and evening *homa*) on account of the peremptory dictates of the Veda (such as 'one should perform Agnihotra as long as one lives'). The commentators have added several limitations and restrictions. The Mit. ⁵⁵⁰ on Yāj. III. 17 states that, as Manu V. 84 only prohibits the stopping of the rites in (Vedic and Smārta) fires, such religious duties as the five daily Mahāyajñas are excluded, that Vaiśvadeva, though performed in fire, is excluded because there is an express text of Samvarta a brāhmaṇa should be without Vaiśvadeva for ten days (after the death of a sapinda), that the Śrauta and Smārta rites should be got performed by another, as Pāraskara (III 10 'anya etāni kuryuḥ) expressly lays down.