History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.459

v5.c72.459

We have now to turn to the subject of *śuddhi* apart from *āśauca*. Śuddhi of a dravya means the⁶⁹⁴ removal of a taint attaching to a thing and it is of two kinds, purification of the body and the purification of an external object (Manu V. 110 and Aparārka p 253). It has already been seen (note 555 above) how even the Ṛg. lays great emphasis on śuddhi and being pure (śuci). There are Vedic⁶⁹⁵ passages laying down that the cups (*grahas*) used in Jyotiṣṭoma and other sacrifices were to be cleansed with a strainer of wool, but not the *camasas*. In the Ait. Br. 32.4 it is provided that if the milk of an *agnihotrin* that was heated by him for the *homa* became impure (*amedhya*, by an ant or worm falling therein), the milk is to be taken up in an agnihotrahavaṇī and was to be poured upon the ashes near the Āhavanīya fire. This shows that great care was taken about the purity of vessels to be used in sacrifices and about the offerings to be made *Śauca* is one of the eight qualities of the soul (*ātmaguṇas*) mentioned by Gaut 8 24, Atri (verses 33, 35), Matsyapurāṇa 52. 8-10, Bṛhaspati (q. by Aparārka p 164). Haradatta on Gautama quotes a verse that śauca is of four kinds viz. monetary purity, mental purity, bodily purity and purity in speech; while Atri and Bṛhaspati⁶⁹⁶ (q. by Aparārka p. 164), aver that śauca is constituted by avoiding what ought not to be eaten, by associating (only) with those who are not censured (i. e. are not reprehensible) and by firmly abiding by one's own prescribed duties. Many works divide *śauca* into two varieties viz *bāhya* (external) and *āntara* or *ābhyantara* (internal). Vide H. of Dh vol. II. pp 651-52 for passages from Baudhāyana Dh. S. (I. 5. 3-4), Hārīta, Dakṣa and others defining and subdividing these. Agni 372. (17-18) is the same as Dakṣa V. 3. The Vanaparva 200. 52 speaks of purity in speech, in actions and that brought about by water The Padma (II. 66. 86-87) emphasizes that it is the mental attitude that is the highest thing and illustrates it by saying that a woman embraces her son and her husband with different mental states. There is an interesting passage in the Liṅgapurāṇa 8. 34-36 (not quoted there) which after stating that *ābhyantara śauca* is superior to *bāhya śauca* (verse 31) remarks⁶⁹⁷ that one void of inner purity is dirty even after a bath, that moss, fish and animals subsisting on fish are always immersed in water, that in spite of that no one would call them pure, that therefore one must always endeavour to secure inner purity and that one should bathe in the water of correct knowledge of the Self, apply once the sandal paste of faith and purify oneself by the clay in the form of desirelessness and that this is declared to be (the real) śauca. Manu V. 106 provides that of all kinds of purity mental purity is the highest. He who is pure as to wealth (i. e. who does not deprive another of wealth by unjust means) is the (only) pure man and not he who is purified by water and earth. Viṣṇu 22. 89 is the same except that for wealth (*artha*) it substitutes food (*anna*). The Trikāṇḍamaṇḍana (prakīrṇaka 21) has the same verse as Manu V. 106. Vide also Anuśāsana 108. 12 (for purity of conduct, of mind, of a holy place, purity due to correct philosophical knowledge); Brahmāṇḍa III. 14. 60 (śucikāmā hi devā vai), and Yogasūtra II. 32 (for śauca as one of the five niyamas).