History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c74.t2.33.2

v5.c74.t2.33.2

(2) Starting on the Great Journey (*mahāprasthāna-gamana* or *mahāpathayātrā*) by a forest hermit (Manu VI. 31, Yāj. III. 55) suffering from incurable diseases and unable to perform the duties of his order (3) An old man or one who cannot observe the rules of bodily purification or who is so ill as to be beyond medical skill may kill himself by throwing himself from a precipice or by fire or by drowning or fasting or start on the Great Journey into the Himālaya or by jumping from the branches of the Vaṭa tree at Prayāga (Aparārka p 877 quoting Ādi-purāṇa and Atri-smṛti verses 218-219 q. by Medhātithi on Manu V. 88 and Mit. on Yāj III. 6) (4) Even a householder, otherwise all right, may resort to suicide by the means stated (in No. 3) if his life's work is done, if he has no desire for the pleasures of the world and does not desire to live, or if he is a Vedāntin¹³⁷¹ and convinced of the ephemeral nature of life and may kill himself by fast in Himālaya. (5) Religious suicide was allowed at the confluence of the two great rivers Gaṅgā and Yamunā, at the Vata there and at some other tīrthas (6) A wife dying by *sahagamana* or *anumarana*. As to *Satī*, the Nāradīya (pūrvārdha 7. 52-53) provides that a woman should not burn herself on the funeral pyre of her husband if she has a young child or young children, if she is pregnant or if she has not attained puberty, or if she is in her monthly illness at the time.