History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.200

v6.c81.200

If a person is unable owing to disease or accident or the like to perform a vrata personally he could get it performed through a *pratinidhi* (a representative) Certain rules were laid down about this It is stated in the Satyāṣāḍhaśrautasūtra¹³³ 'there is no pratinidhi (representative or substitute) in the case of the owner (the *Yajamāna*), the wife, the son, the (proper) place and time (for an act), the fire, the deity (to be invoked such as Agni, Indra), a rite and a text (to be prescribed for being employed in a rite)'. All religious acts are arranged in three classes, viz. *nitya* (obligatory), naimittika (to be performed when a certain *nimitta* or occasion arises or event happens) and kāmya (performed out of a desire to secure some object). Vide H. of Dh. vol. IV pp 60-61 note 150 for further details The Trikāṇḍamaṇḍana¹³⁴ has the following rules about *pratinidhi* in these three kinds of acts 'No pratinidhi (substitute) is allowed in the case of kāmya rites, a substitute is allowable in the case of nitya and naimittika rites; some recognized a substitute even in a kāmya rite after it is once begun; there is no substitute for a mantra or the deity or the fire (Gārhapatya, Āhavanīya or Dakṣiṇāgni), a *kriyā* (such as *prayāja*) or *īśvara* (the svāmin or yajamāna); some say that a substitute is not allowed in the case of (a prescribed) place or time An *agnihotrin* can substitute, (if his wife is dead &c) an image of her made of gold or kuśas but a woman cannot proceed with a rite putting forward some substitute or effigy in place of the husband.' If a person is unable, after undertaking a vrata, to carry it out, he should get it done by a representative Such representatives are: son, wife, brother, husband, a sister, a pupil, purohita (for dakṣiṇā) and a friend Paithīnasi¹³⁵ states that a wife might carry on the vrata undertaken by the husband and the husband may do so for the wife, if both are unable a stranger may carry it out, in this way there is no break of vrata Kātyāyana¹³⁶ says:—one who observes a fast for the sake of his father or mother, brother, husband and particularly for his guru secures one hundred-fold merit, if a person observes a fast on Ekādaśī in place of his maternal grand-father and the like they and their representative each obtain the full fruit thereof. These rules about pratinidhi apply to men of all *varṇas* ¹³⁷