History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c93.450

v7.c93.450

The P. M. S. holds that the gender and number of a word in a *vidhivākya* may in certain cases be intended and insisted on. For example, in PMS IV. I. 11-16 it is established that the Agnīṣomīya animal to be sacrificed in Jyotiṣṭoma as prescribed in the words ‘yo dīkṣito yad agnīṣomīyaṁ paśum-ālabhati’ (that the person who has undergone dīkṣā and offers the animal to Agni and Soma) is only one and that the words in the Aśvamedha ‘he offers kapiñjalas to the season of²¹⁰⁵ spring’, the kapiñjala birds to be offered are only three (and not one nor two nor more than three) Similarly, the gender in the passage ‘he sacrifices in the morning in spring an animal with dark coloured neck to Agni, in summer in the noon an animal of different colours, in the autumn in the afternoon a white animal to Bṛhaspati’, it is a female animal that is offered because immediately thereafter the words ‘they become pregnant’ occur. Dharmaśāstra works often say that the masculine gender used in many texts excludes women. For example, the Agnipurāṇa²¹⁰⁶ (175. 59-61), when dealing with the rules to be observed in all *vratas* in general, provides that the person undergoing vrata should take a bath, should worship the golden images of the deities of the *vratas*, perform *japa* and *homa* and at the end of the *vrata* make gifts according to his ability and should feed 24, 12, 5 or only three *vipras*. The N. S. quotes this from Pṛthvīcandra and observes that as the masculine gender ‘viprāḥ’ is employed only males of the brāhmaṇa class are to be fed and not women.