History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.232.3

v5.c72.232.3

This practice of *dhavana* (symbolic) may go on for five, seven, nine, eleven days, half a month, a month or a year during which time one has to donate food and money (gold &c) according to one s ability or on the last day according to some.⁵⁷¹ If one may offer a conjecture, this rite was intended to assure the deceased man (represented by the charred bones) that his wife had remained faithful and unattached to any one else even long after his death. The Baud. P. S. (I. 17.8) also states that female dancers dance in this rite. Various measurements are given in the sūtras for the mounds that are constructed over the bones. Sat. Śr. (29.1 5–6) says⁵⁷² that the site of the mound (*śmaśānāyatana*) is five *prakramas* on all four sides (or six on the east and five in the other directions, acc. to some). The height of the mound is variously given even in the same sūtra.⁵⁷³ Sat Śr. states that the height may be two finger-breadths, or three or four or a *prādeśa* (the distance between the thumb and index finger when both are stretched away) or a *vitasti* (twelve finger-breadths), or it may be up to the knee or thighs or buttocks The Baud P S. I. 18 gives different⁵⁷⁴ measurements. It states 'if the mound to be raised is as high as the neck towards the west, then it is up to the navel on the east, if it is as high as the navel on the west, then it is as high as the knee on the east; if up to the knee on the west then on the east it is level with the ankle'.