History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.535

v5.c72.535

Several rules were laid down about the purification of polluted corn and polluted cooked food. A reference has already been made to the purification of heaps of corn Common sense, convenience and the loss that may be caused by very stringent provisions are the considerations which prompt the rules on this subject. Viṣṇu 23.25 provides⁷⁴⁰ that where a heap of rice (or other grain) is polluted, one should throw away only that portion of it which is actually defiled and should submit the rest to pounding and washing with water; cooked food that exceeds in volume one *droṇa* and that has been defiled does not all become tainted, but that throwing away the defiled portion alone, one should sprinkle over the rest water mixed with gold on which the sacred Gāyatrī verse has been repeated and should hold it before a goat to see it and should also bring fire near it. Vide Baud. Dh. S. I. 6. 44-48. 'If grains of rice are polluted they should be washed and dried. But if it is a large quantity then sprinkling with water is enough; husked rice (if polluted) should be cast away. The same rule applies to cooked offerings. But in the case of large heaps of cooked food that portion which is polluted by dogs or crows should be cast away and the rest should be sprinkled with the *Anuvāka* pavamānaḥ suvarjanaḥ' (Tai. Br. I. 48). Gaut. 17. 9-10 provide⁷⁴¹ that one should not partake of food that was cooked along with hair and insects (like ants), nor food that is polluted by the contact of a woman in her monthly illness, by a crow or by being struck with the foot (of some one). But where food is already cooked and then it is smelt by a cow or it is polluted by the falling into it of hair, insects, flies, then Yāj. I. 189 and Parāśara VI. 64-65 provide that in order to purify it water, ashes (with water) or loose earth (with water) should be cast over it. Āp. Dh. S. I. 5 16. 24-29 provide that one should not partake of food in which hair exists (i. e it was there from the beginning) or anything else (like nails) that is impure or of food that is touched with an unclean substance or in which an insect that subsists on impure things exists or food which is struck by the feet of any person or in which the excrement or the tail (or limb) of a rat is found.