History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.343.1

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.