History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.356

v5.c72.356

To summarize the above discussion it is clear that as indicated by Medhātithi on Manu V. 58 there is a distinction as regards the periods of āśauca and the persons affected by it in several ways (1) There is a distinction between āśauca on birth and āśauca on death; (2) As to āśauca on death numerous distinctions arise viz (a) when there is abortion (garbhasrāva or garbhapāta, as in Śaṅkha 15 4, Bṛhat-Parāśara VI p 186); (b) when the foetus comes out from the 7th to the 9th month of pregnancy or the child is still-born or dies after being born but before the appearance of teeth (Yāj. III. 23, Atri 95); (c) after the appearance of teeth but before cūḍā or three years (Viṣṇu 22. 29, Yāj. III. 23); (d) after cūḍā or three years up to upanayana (Manu V. 67), (e) after upanayana (Yāj. III. 23, Manu V. 59, Gaut. 14. 1); (f) as to āśauca on death after upanayana the duration at one time depended in the case of brāhmaṇas on Vedic study, the performance of śrauta rites and whether the brāhmaṇa subsisted on ears of corn left in the field after the crops were harvested⁶⁴³ (Parāśara III 5, Śaṅkha 15 1, Atri 83, Agnipurāṇa 158. 10-11), (g) the duration of āśauca depended on caste (Gaut. 14. 1-4, Yāj III. 22 &c ); (h) the duration of āśauca depended on nearness of blood i. e. whether the person affected was a sapiṇḍa or a samānodaka (Gaut 14 1 and 18, Manu V. 59, 64); (i) the duration depended also on the nearness or distance from the place of death (Laghu-Āśvalāyana 20. 85, 89), (j) it also depended on whether the deceased died in a different country separated by a large river, a mountain or thirty yojanas (Laghu-Āśvalāyana 20.87); (k) duration depended on the time that elapsed before it came to the knowledge of the relative; (l) the duration depended upon whether another āśauca supervened when the period of the first was not over.