History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c75.600

v5.c75.600

Man, see under 'death', entertains a belief even in the Upaniṣads that the thoughts that dying man has at time of death determine what will happen to his soul 185-186, dying man taking sannyāsa was supposed to be free from the cycle of births and deaths 185, dying man should be made to give one or more of ten gifts 182, dying man, after one or more out of ten gifts, should donate a cow with calf and another cow called Vaitaraṇī 183, dying m. should repeat such mantras as 'Om namo bhagavate Vāsudevāya' or listen to Vedic texts or sāmans or the Gītā and other works 185, dying near Śālagrāma reaches highest abode of Viṣṇu or Vaikuṇṭha even though he be a mleccha 187, dying in a garden of Tulasī (basil) plants or with a basil leaf in his mouth attains mokṣa even if guilty of crores of sins 187, enemies of, according to Śāntiparva 9, how m. incurs sin 10, m on whose death no piṇḍa was offered or the sixteen śrāddhas were not performed remained for long in the condition of a piśāca 265-266; if man dying is a knower of *brahma*, in his ear should be uttered Tai Up II. 1 and III 1, 185, practice of taking down from the bedstead a dying m and placing on a bed of kuśa grass or of sand on the earth 182, polluted by certain actions 51, sarvaprāyaścitta for dying man 184, son or other relative of dying m should perform or make him perform vratodyāpana, sarva prāyaścitta and gift of ten dānas 183, should, when dying, be taken near a holy place (like the Ganges) 186, various views about the fate of the departed m in Upaniṣad times 155