Sexual Life in Ancient India: A Study in the Comparative History of Indian Culture v1.c8.80

v1.c8.80

to a woman (avakirṇin), then according to MBh., xii, 24 he must be clad for six months in an ox-skin and carry out the penance of the Brahman-murderer, and also in xii, 34.¹ ff. his name is given along with the slayer of a man of the priestly class and other wicked evil-doers, and prāyaçcitta (atonement) is imposed on him. Cp. v, 38.4. According to the law writings he gets cleansed again by sacrificing in the night at a cross-ways to Nirṛiti (goddess of corruption) a (one-eyed) ass. The sinner must put on the ass’s skin with the hair outside, and (with a red begging-bowl) beg at seven houses, making known his deed. (He must eat only once a day, and bathe in the morning, at midday, and in the evening.) Besides this other offerings and atonement rites are also given. Baudhāyana, ii, 1.29-34; iii, 4; iv, 2.10 f.; Āpast., i, 9, 26.8; Vasiṣṭha, xxiii, 1-3; Manu, xi, 119-124; Yājñav., iii, 280; Viṣṇu, xxviii, 48 ff.; Gautama, xxiii, 17-19; xxv, 1-5; Pārask.-Gṛihyas., iii, 12.1 ff.; Agnipur., 169.15b-18a (essentially = Manu, xi, 119 ff.). Any other self-polluter comes off lightly (bathing, Viṣṇu, liii, 4, etc.; to say the Gāyatrī a thousand times, and three times to hold the breath [prāṇāyāma] in Parāçara, xii, 63; and so on). Cp. Baudh., iii, 7.1-7; iv, 2.13; Āpast., i, 9, 26.7; Manu, xi, 174; Viṣṇu, liii, 4; Gaut., xxv, 7.