History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c72.9

v5.c72.9

When a man is sinking and is almost on the point of death it was and even now is the practice in many parts of India to take the dying man down from the bedstead and place him on a bed spread on the earth⁴²⁴. For example, the Kauśika-sūtra (80 3) prescribes⁴²⁵: When the man is losing all strength, he (the son or other attending relative) spreads *kuśas* on the grass growing in the shed and takes him down (from the bed-stead) with the *mantra* ‘syonāsmai bhava’ (mayst thou be good to this man, Oh Earth). The Baud P S III 1 18 says that sand should be spread on the ground in the sacrificial shed when it is feared that the sacrificer is dying and *darbha* grass should be strewn on the sand with the sharp ends turned to the south and the dying man should be placed thereon and one (son or the like) should repeat in his right ear the anuvāka beginning with ‘āyuṣaḥ prāṇam santanu’. The Gobhilasmṛti III. 22 and later works like the Pitṛdayitā provide the same procedure.