History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c73.t1.271.1

v5.c73.t1.271.1

Some of the other rules are: The Prajāpati-smṛti (verses 57-62) states who should cook the food for the śrāddha dinner. The wife, any fortunate (or handsome) woman of the performer's gotra whose husband is living and who has a son or brother and is devoted to waiting upon her elders, the performer's teacher's wife, his maternal uncle's wife, paternal or maternal aunt, his sister, his daughter or daughter-in-law, all of them having their husbands alive, should engage in the cooking of the food for śrāddha. Women of good family, who have a large progeny, whose husbands are alive and who are about 50 years old or these women if they have become widows, and the wife of one's paternal uncle or brother, one's mothers (natural or step-mothers) and the mothers of one's father may cook the śrāddha food and also a woman of the same gotra who is mild by temper. In the Anuśāsana parva (92.15) it is stated that a woman belonging to a gotra other than that of the deceased should not be employed for cooking śrāddha food. One's brother, paternal uncle, brother's son, sister's son, one's son, pupil, one's daughter's son or daughter's husband may also engage in cooking the śrāddha food, but not a woman who wears a white and wet garment, who has let her hair loose, who does not wear a bodice, who is ill or who has bathed her head. Before the brāhmaṇas begin to eat, the food should be first served in the plates for the Vaiśvadeva brāhmaṇas and then in those of the *pitrya* brāhmaṇas (Viṣṇu Dh S.