History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.294

v5.c72.294

The literature on Śuddhi (including āśauca) is very extensive. Apart from the sūtras, smṛtis and Purāṇas there are numerous digests dealing with the subject at great length. Some of them have been printed. The smṛtis contain a mass of contradictory dicta to such an extent and different from the usages of medieval times that the Mit on Yāj III. 22 after quoting the views of Parāśara, Śātātapa, Vasiṣṭha and Aṅgiras on the periods for which impurity had to be observed by persons belonging to the four varṇas refuses to evolve order out of them and remarks that the usages in its day were different from the dicta of those sages⁶⁰⁷. The Madana-pārijāta (p 392) agrees with the Mit and also suggests other modes of dealing with the conflict. Two examples may be cited of the way in which different smṛtis approach the same problem. Atri 83, Parāśara III. 5 and Dakṣa VI. 6 provide that a brāhmaṇa who has consecrated the three Vedic fires and has mastered the Veda becomes free from impurity (on birth and death) in one day, one who has merely mastered the Veda (but has not consecrated the śrauta fires) in three days and one who is devoid of both in ten days. Manu V. 59 gives various options viz 10 days, 4 days, 3 days, 1 day but does not state explicitly to whom his remarks apply. Bṛhaspati607a (q.