History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.506

v5.c72.506

According to Yāj I. 187 and Viṣṇu Dh. S. 23.56 a polluted house is purified by being swept and cowdunged. But more stringent rules were laid down if a dog, a śūdra, a *patita*, a *mleccha* or a *caṇḍāla* died in a brāhmaṇa's house (vide note 633 above). After keeping the house vacant for the periods stated in note 633, it is provided by Saṃvarta⁷²³ that a house that is polluted by the existence of a corpse inside it should be dealt with as follows: earthen pots and cooked food should be cast away and thrown out of the house which should then be smeared with cowdung and then a goat should be made to go about in it smelling it and then the whole house should be sprinkled over with water in which gold and *kuśas* are put in by brāhmaṇas rendered holy by the repetition of the Gāyatrī mantra; then the house becomes pure. Marīci prescribes⁷²⁴ that if a caṇḍāla (merely) entered a house, it can be purified by plastering it with cowdung, but if he were to stay in it long, purification can be had only by heating it and making flames of fire lick its walls.