History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.544

v5.c72.544

A few words may be said about the purification of different kinds of cloth and garments and the materials of which they are made. Laghu-Āśvalāyana (I. 28-30) provides that a white garment is always commended for wearing (as a *dhotī*), but they are commended for wearing as upper garments and both are not defiled by the touch of anybody. Men may take their food or answer calls of nature while covered with both; *trasara* is purified by being washed while a silken garment is always pure. Manu V. 120-121, Yāj I 186-187 and Viṣṇu (23. 19-22) provide almost in the same words that silken and woollen cloth is cleansed by saline earth (and with water and cow's urine), Nepalese blankets by the powder of soap berry, clothes made of tree bark with Bilva fruit and linen cloth by (paste of) white mustard. Viṣṇu 23. 6 says⁷⁴⁶ that when a garment is extremely polluted that portion thereof which when washed with water loses its colour should be cut off. Śaṅkha⁷⁴⁷ quoted by Viśvarūpa on Yāj. I. 182 prescribes that garments are purified by being submitted to hot steam, by washing with water or by cutting off only that portion that is defiled. Parāśara VII. 28 provides that garments made from bamboos and barks of trees, linen and cotton garments, garments of wool and birch bark are purified by mere *prokṣaṇa*.