History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c95.319

v7.c95.319

*Repentance* (*anutāpa*) Manu (XII. 227 and 230) provides that a sinner is relieved of the consequences of sin by proclaiming his sin to people, by repentance, by austerities, by recitation of Vedic texts, by gifts in case of distress (i e. if he is unable to undergo *tapas*); a man after commiting a sin becomes free from it by feeling remorse and if he makes a resolve 'I shall never again do so' he is purified. The Visṇupurāṇa provides that, when afer committing a sin the man feels remorse, the one high expiation that he has then to undergo is the remembrance of Hari.²⁵⁷⁶ MacNicol, a Scottish Missionary, wrote a work (in 1915) on 'Indian theism' in which he boldly asserts, after referring to the Upanisadic doctrine of Karma that 'there is no place for repentance in the Hindu doctrine of Karma' (p 223). It has been shown above that confession was known in Vedic times and that repentance was valued in Dharmaśāstra works either as removing sins or as making the repentant man fit for receiving expiatory rites (vide H. of Dh. vol. IV. pp. 41-42). The worthy missionary author probably thinks his Christian brand of remission of sins by confession and repentance better than the Upanisadic teaching. Ancient Indian authors were not prepared to accept mere confession and repentance as enough to absolve a man of all sins. The Biblical position that if one believes in Christ and his gospel, confesses his sins and says he repents (as required in Matthew 4. 17, Mark I. 15 and Luke 24. 47) is very likely to engender among common men a complacent attitude about sins. This complacent frame of mind, the ancient Dharmaśāstra writers wanted to prevent and therefore, they insisted upon a good deal more than repentance and confession of sins. They blended the old doctrine of confession and repentance with retribution viz hell tortures and vile births. Later Paurānik writers approached very close to the probable attitude of common Christians that one has simply to believe in Christ as a redeemer, to confess and to take the name of God for being absolved from all sins. Macnicol either did not read the relevant texts from Purāṇas or he forgot them when he made the assertion noted above.