History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.343
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.343
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v5.c72.343.1
*Atīkrāntāśauca* (impurity on coming to know of birth or death after the several periods fixed). The general rule ⁶³⁴ is that, if a person stays in a different country and hears of a birth or death among his sapinḍas, he has to observe āśauca not for ten days after hearing but for that number of days that are short of the ten days (counting from birth or death) prescribed for sapinḍas. Vide Manu V. 75, Yāj III. 21 (latter half), Śaṅkha 15.11, Pār. gṛ III. 10 Āśauca interferes very much with one's activities and it is hence that often-times people send a closed letter to their relatives living in a different place stating thereon that it be opened on a particular day (which is the 10th day from the death of a sapinḍa). Everyone knows the meaning of such a direction and by such a subterfuge inconvenience is avoided and the dictates of the śāstra are deemed to be satisfied. If a son hears of the death of a parent he has to observe āśauca for ten days from the day of hearing, but if he hears of the death of a parent before the collection of bones then he has to observe āśauca only for the days that remain (Smṛti-muktāphala p. 534). There is great divergence about the period of āśauca if the death of a sapinḍa comes to one's ears more than ten days after the day of death. Manu V. 77 provides that on hearing of the death of a sapinḍa or the birth of a son after ten days (from the event) a man becomes pure after plunging into water with the clothes on and Yāj III.
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21 (last pāda, 'pūrṇe dattvodakaṁ śuciḥ') states that he becomes pure after (a bath and) offering water when the period fixed has passed off. From the words of Manu that only the father, even if he hears of the birth of a son more than ten days after the event, has to take a bath the Mit infers that there is no atikrāntāśauca for sapinḍas on birth⁶³⁵. The Mit. quotes Devala in support (vide note 621 above). The Dharmasindhu follows the Mit. Manu V. 76, Śaṅkha 15.12, Kūrmapurāṇa (Uttarārdha) 23.21 state that when ten days have passed after the event of death, the man who hears of the death is impure for three days and if he hears of the death more than a year after death, he becomes pure after a bath. In order to remove the conflict among smṛtis Vṛddha-Vasiṣṭha lays down 'āśauca is for three days if the news of death is heard within three months (but later than ten days after death), for a pakṣiṇī if it is heard within six months (but later than three months), for one day if heard before nine months (but later than 6 months) and thereafter (i. e. up to one year but later than nine months) one becomes pure by a bath. But the Mit. says⁶³⁶ that this holds good as to all except one's parents and quotes Paiṭhīnasi and another smṛti for the proposition that whenever a son staying in a distant country hears of the death of a parent whether within a year or after a year he has to observe āśauca for ten days from the day he becomes aware of it.
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Laghu-Āśvalāyana (20.88) lays down the same exception in the case of a son. The Mit. (on Yāj. III. 21 last half) further says that the rules about atikrāntāśauca apply only to a deceased person whose upanayana had been performed. The Dharmasindhu (p 433) remarks that there is no atikrāntāśauca as regards the periods of one day and three days prescribed on the death of one whose upanayana had not been performed or as regards the periods of pakṣiṇī and three days on the death of the maternal uncle and others of a different gotra. Similarly, there is no atikrāntāśauca with reference to the āśauca for three days prescribed in the case of samānodakas; but in these cases even after the lapse of the fixed time a bath is necessary. The rules about atikrāntāśauca apply only to āśauca on death for ten days. As in the case of the son, so in the cases of husband and wife and of co-wives among themselves even after the lapse of more than a year and even if the death is in a different country the husband or wife or co-wife has to observe āśauca for ten days The parents, even when they hear of the death of an *aurasa* son after a year, have to observe āśauca for three days. On the news of the death of a sapiṇḍa living in the same country coming to a sapiṇḍa's ears after ten days but up to three months, the period of āśauca is three days, pakṣiṇī up to 6 months, up to nine months one day and up to one year a bath. Here also there are various views such as those of Mādhava and others.
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Vide Śuddhiprakāśa pp. 49-51 for various views.