History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.528

v5.c72.528

Elaborate rules are laid down about the purification of polluted pots and vessels used in ordinary life, in Baud. Dh. S. I. 5. 34-50, I. 6. 33-42, Yāj. I. 182-183, Viṣṇu 23. 2-5, Śaṅkha 16. 1-5 and others. There is some variation in all these, but, as the Mit. on Yāj. I. 190 remarks, it is not an absolute rule that copper must be purified by acids alone but if purification is possible by other means, they may be resorted to It is not necessary to set out the different modes of purifying vessels. A passage from the Śuddhi-prakāśa pp. 117-118 would be sufficient to indicate how this matter of *pātraśuddhi* (cleansing of polluted vessels) was dealt with in medieval India. "vessels made of gold, silver, conches, shells, stones, precious stones, bell metal, brass, tin, lead are purified by mere water, provided they have no dirt or pollution sticking to them, if these vessels are polluted by the contact of leavings of food &c. they are purified by ashes and water or acids and water according as anyone of these is appropriate; the vessels made of the above substances that are polluted for a long time owing to being used by śūdras or owing to contact with leavings of food should first be scoured with salts (ashes) and water three times and should be then cast into fire so long as it can be borne (without the vessels being broken, melted or burnt up) and then they become pure. Vessels of bell metal when polluted by only dogs, crows, śūdras and leavings of food only once or licked by cows become pure by being scoured ten times with salts and water; but if they are polluted by the above several times then they have to be scoured 21 times for becoming pure. If in a vessel belonging to the three higher *varṇas* a śūdra takes his meal, it becomes pure after being washed four times with salts and being cast in fire and then taken up with hands that are washed clean with water. A vessel of bell-metal that is polluted once by the leavings of a woman freshly delivered or by intoxicants or liquors becomes pure after being heated in fire; but if it is polluted several times then it becomes pure by being again manufactured. A vessel of bell-metal that is polluted by being frequently used for holding the water expelled from the mouth after rinsing it or the water in which the feet are washed should be buried in the ground for six months, then heated in fire and then it becomes pure (compare Parāśara VII. 24–25); but if it is polluted thus only once it becomes pure after (being buried in the ground) for ten days All metal vessels polluted for a short time by the bodily dirts such as urine, excrement, semen become pure after being placed for seven nights in cow's urine or in a great river; but if they are polluted as above many times or are polluted by the contact of a corpse, a freshly delivered woman or a woman in her monthly course they become pure after being thrice washed with salts, acids and water and after being heated in fire till they can bear it, but if these are polluted by urine and for a long time and frequently they become pure by being beaten into shape (manufactured) again.