History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v6.c81.689.3

v6.c81.689.3

72, Durgārcana p 661 Some very orthodox writers went so far as to lay down that a śūdra could only listen to the Mahābhārata or Saptaśatī but could not read it himself. Raghunandana⁴⁴⁵ like Kamalākara appears to have held this view. One should stop reading at the end of a chapter and not in its middle; but if for some reason one had to stop in the middle of a chapter, when one again commenced reading or reciting Saptaśatī, one should not proceed from where one left off in the middle of a chapter, but begin with the first verse of the chapter half read or recited. Provision was made that the reader engaged for reading Saptaśatī should be handsomely requited for his labour by gifts of gold, silver, cows with bell-metal pails for milking. Mr Ghosh notes (p. 39) that besides the reader of Devīmāhātmya a separate priest is selected to repeat the mūlamantra a hundred thousand times and is called *Jāpaka*. The Nirṇayasindhu (pp 185–186) gives elaborate descriptions of Śatacandi-pāṭha and Sahasracandi In the first, ten well-conducted brāhmaṇas including the ācārya are chosen. They are to recite together Saptaśatī once on the 1st day, twice on the 2nd, thrice on the 3rd and four times on the 4th; in this way Saptaśatī would be repeated one hundred times. In Sahasracandi one hundred brāhmaṇas are to be chosen and they are to repeat Saptaśatī for four days as in Śatacandi-pāṭha A thousand brāhmaṇas are to be fed and one hundred cows are to be donated.