History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.497

v5.c72.497

The Smṛtyarthasāra (pp. 73-74) provides that if an idol made of iron or other metal is slightly polluted (as defined above) then it can be purified by means of pañcagavya after rubbing it with ashes; similarly a stone idol, when slightly polluted, should be washed with water mixed with the clay from an ant-hill and becomes pure after being treated with pañcagavya. Any idol, if polluted with ordure, urine or village mud would become pure after first being flooded for five days with pañcagavya, after being well washed with cow's urine, cowdung and clay from an ant-hill and by being again installed (with all installation rites). Questions about the pollution of temples by the entry of the so-called untouchables or by the entrance of persons other than brāhmaṇas in the inmost shrine (garbhagṛha) have come before the courts e. g. in *Gopala Muppanar v. Dharmakarta Subramania* 27 Madras Law Journal p. 253 at p. 258, where reference is made to the ceremonies for the removal of pollution according to the *Āgamas* and *Tantras*. In *S. K. Wodeyar v. Ganapati* (37 Bom. L R 584) the point arose whether, when a custom was alleged that in a temple at Banavasi in the Canara district none could enter the inner sanctum except persons belonging to the ten sub-divisions of brāhmaṇas and a Lingayat entered it in spite of the protests of the worshippers in charge of the temple, his entry polluted the temple and whether he was liable to pay for the sum spent over the purification of the temple, the High Court of Bombay held that the custom alleged viz of excluding from the inner sanctum all that were not brāhmaṇas was proved and that the Lingayat gentleman who entered it in spite of protests was liable to pay damages for the wrongful entry. In the Nirṇayasindhu (III pūrvārdha pp. 351–52), the Dharmasindhu (III p. 324) and other medieval digests provision is made for the re-consecration (punaḥ-pratiṣṭhā) of an idol in a temple when the idol is polluted by the touch of cāṇḍālas or wine or is burnt by fire or is defiled by the touch of sinners or the blood of a brāhmaṇa ⁷¹⁸ If the idol be broken in two or more pieces or if it becomes broken (irregularly), if it be burnt or falls from its pedestal or be insulted, is without worship or is touched by an ass or the like animal, or falls on foul ground or is worshipped with the mantras of other gods,—in these ten circumstances Godhood ceases to indwell in the idol. If an idol be touched by robbers, cāṇḍālas, *patita* people, by a dog or a woman in her courses or if it be polluted by the touch of a corpse re-consecration is necessary.