Chapter 5: On Diet, Purification, and Women

1. THE sages, having heard those laws delivered for the conduct of housekeepers, thus addressed the highminded BHRIGU, who proceeded in a former birth from the genius of fire.

1. THE sages, having heard those laws delivered for the conduct of housekeepers, thus addressed the highminded BHRIGU, who proceeded in a former birth from the genius of fire.

2. ‘ How, Lord, can death prevail over Brdhmens , who know the scriptural ordinances, and perform their duties, as they have been declared ?’

3. ‘ Then he, whose disposition was perfect virtue, even BiirigU, the son of Menu, thus answered the great Ktshis .** 1 Hear, from what sin proceeds the inclination of death, to destroy the chief of the twice-born :

4. ‘ Through a neglect of reading the VSda, through a desertion of approved usages, through supine remissness in performing holy rites , and through various offences in diet, the genius of death becomes eager to destroy them.

5. ‘ Garlic, onions, leeks, and mushrooms (which no twiceborn man must eat), and all vegetables raised in dung.

6. ‘Red gums or resins, exuding from trees, and juices from wounded stems, the fruit s£lu> and the thickened milk of a cow within ten days after her calving, a priest must avoid with great care.

7. * Ricepudding boiled with tila, frumenty, riccmilk, and baked bread, which have not been first offered to some deity, fleshmeat also, the food of gods, and clarified butter, which have not fyrst been touched, while holy texts were recited.

8. ‘ Fresh milk from a cow, whose ten days are not passed, the milk of a camel, or any quadruped with a hoof not cloven, that of an ewe, and that of a cow in heat, or whose calf is dead or absent from her. ON DIET ; PURIFICATION ,

9. ' That of any forest beast, except the buffalo, the m ilk of a woman, and any thing naturally sweet but acidulated, must all be carefully shunned :

10. ‘ But among such acids, buttermilk may be swallowed, and every preparation of buttermilk, and all acids extracted from pure flowers, roots, or fruit not cut with iron .

11. ‘ Let every twice-born man avoid carnivorous birds, and such as live in towns, and quadrupeds with uncloven hoofs, except those allowed by the Vtda, and the bird called tittibha ;

12. * The sparrow, the water bird plava , the phenicopteros, the chacravdca, the breed of the towncock, the sdrasa , the rajjuvdla , the woodpecker, and the parrot, male and female ;

13. 4 Birds, that strike with their beaks, webfooted birds, the cdyashti , those, who wound with strong talons, and those, who dive to devour fish : let him avoid meat kept at a slaughter house, and dried meat.

14. ‘ The heron, the raven, the ettanjana, all amphibious fisheaters, tame hogs, and fish of every sort, but those expressly permitted \

15. 1 He, who eats the flesh of any animal, is called the eater of that animal itself ; and a fisheater is an eater of all flesh ; from fish, therefore, he must diligently abstain :

16. ‘Yet the two fish, called paihina and rShita, may be eaten by the guests, when offered at a repast in honor of the gods or the manes ; and so may the rdjiva , the sinhatunda, and the sasalca of every species.

17. ‘ Let him not eat the flesh of any solitary animals, nor of unknown beasts or birds, though by general words declared eatable, nor of any creature with five claws ;

18. ‘The hedgehog and porcupine, the lizard gddhd, the gandaca, the tortoise, and the rabbit or hare, wise legislators declare lawful food among fivetoed animals ; and all quadrupeds, camels excepted, which have but one row of teeth.

19. ‘The twice-bo^n man, who has intentionally eaten a AND WOMEN. mushroom, the flesh of a tame hog, or a town cock, a leek, or an onion, or garlic, is degraded immediately ,*

20. 4 But having undesignedly tasted either of those six things, he must perform the penance sdntapana> or the chdndrdyana% which anchorets, practise : for other things he must fast a whole day.

21. 4 One of those harsh penances, called prdjdpcityciy the twiceborn man must perform annually, to purify him from the unknown taint of illicit food ; but he must do particular penance for such food intentionally eaten.

22. ‘BEASTS and birds of excellent sorts may be slain by Brdhmens for sacrifice, or for the sustenance of those, whom they are bound to support ; since Agastya did this of old.

23. 4 No doubt, in the primeval sacrifices by holy mdn, and in oblations by those Of the priestly and military tribes, the flesh of such beasts and birds, as may be legally eaten, was presented to the deities.

24. 4 That, which may be eaten or drunk, when fresh> without blame, may be swallowed, if touched with oil, though it has been kept a whole night ; and so may the remains of clarified butter :

25. 4 And every mess prepared with barley .or wheat, or with dressed milk, may be eaten by the twice-born, although not sprinkled with oil.

26. 4 Thus has the food, allowed or forbidden to a twice-born man, been comprehensively mentioned : I will now propound the special rules for eating and for avoiding flesh meat.

27. 4 He should taste meat, which has been hallowed for a sacrifice with appropriated texts, and, once only> when a priest shall desire him, and when he is performing a legal act, or in danger of losing life. #

28. 4 For the sustenance of the vital spirit, Brahma' created all this animal and vegetable system ; and all, that is moveable or immoveable, that spirit devours.

29. 4 Things fixed are eaten by creatures with locomotion ; toothless animals, by animals with teeth ; those without hands, by those to whom hands were given ; and the timid, by the bold.

30. 4 He, who eats according to laft, commits no sin, even 9S ON DIET ; PURIFICATION , though every day he taste the flesh' of such animals, as may lawfully be tasted ; since both animals, who may be eaten, and those, who eat them, were equally created by Brahma'. '

31. 4 It is delivered as a rule of the gods, that meat must be swallowed only for the purpose of sacrifice ; but it is a rule of gigantic demons, that it may be swallowed for any other purpose.

32. ‘ No sin is committed by him, who, having honored the deities and the manes, eats fleshmeat, which he has bought, or which he has himself acquired, or which has been given him by another :

33. ‘Let no twice-born man, who knows the law, and is not in urgent distress, cat flesh without observing this rule ; for he, unable to* save himself, will be devoured in the next world, by those animals, whose flesh he has thus illegally swallowed.

34. * The sin of him, who kills deer for gain, is not so heinous, with respect to the punishment in another life, as that of him, who cats fleshmeat in vain, or not previously offered as a sacrifice :

35. ‘ But the man, who, engaged in holy riles according to law, refuses to eat it, shall sink in another world, for twenty-one births, to the state of a beast.

36. * Never let a priest eat the flesh of cattle unhallowed with mantray , but let him eat it, observing the primeval rule, when it has been hallowed with those texts of the Veda. 3 7. ‘ Should he have an earnest desire to taste fleshmeat, he may gratify his fancy by forming, the image of some beast with clarified butter thickened, or he may form it with dough ; but never let him indulge a wish to kill any beast in vain :

38. * As many hairs as grow on the beast, so many similar deaths shall the slayer of it, for his own satisfaction in this world, endure in the next from birth to birth.

39. * By the selfexisting in person were beasts created for sacrifice ; and the sacrifice was ordained for the increase of this universe: the slaughterer therefore, of beasts for sacrifice is in truth no slaughterer. ,

40. ‘ Gramineous • plants, cattle, timbeufcrees, amphibious AND WOMEN. animals, and birds, which have been destroyed for the purpose of sacrifice, attain in the next world exalted births.

41. 4 On a solemn offering to a guest, at a sacrifice, and in holy rites to the manes or to the gods, but on those occasions only, may cattle be slain : this law Menu enacted.

42. 4 The twice-born man, who, knowing the meaning and principles of the VMa> slays cattle on the occasions mentioned, conveys both himself and those cattle to the summit of beatitude.

43. 4 Let no twice-born man, whose mind is improved by learning, hurt animals without the sanction of scripture, even though in pressing distress, whether he live in his own house, or in that of his preceptor, or in a forest.

44. 4 That hurt, which the scripture ordains, and ’which is done in this world of moveable and immoveable creatures, he must consider as no hurt at all ; since law shone forth from the light of the scripture.

45. 4 He, who injures animals, that are not injurious, from a wish to give himself pleasure, adds nothing to his own happiness, living or dead ;

46. ‘While he, who gives no creature willingly the pain of confinement or death, but seeks the good of all sentient beings , enjoys bliss without end.

47. 4 He, who injures no animated creature, shall attain without hardship whatever he thinks of, whatever he strives for, whatever he fixes his mind on.

48. 4 Fleshmeat cannot be procured without injury to animals, and the slaughter of animals obstructs the path to beatitude ; from fleshmeat, therefore, let man abstain :

49. 4 Attentively considering the formation of bodies, and the death or confinement of embodied spirits, let him abstain from eating fleshmeat of any kind.

50. 4 The man, who forsakes not the law, and eats not fleshmeat, like a bloodthirsty demon, shall attain good will in this world, and shall not be afflicted with makdies.

51. 4 He, wljo consents to the death of an animal ; he, who IOO ON DIRT, PURIFICATION, kills it ; he, who dissects it ; he, who buys it ; he, who sells it ; he, who dresses it ; he, who serves it up ; and he, who makes it his food ; these are eight principals in the slaughter.

52. ‘ Not a mortal exists more sinful than he, who, without an oblation to the manes or the gods, desires to enlarge his own flesh with the flesh of another creature.

53. 1 The man, who performs annually, for a hundred years, an aswamddha , or sacrifice of a horse, and the man, who abstains from fleshmeat, enjoy for their virtue an equal reward.

54. * By subsisting on pure fruit and on roots, and by eating such grains as arc eaten by hermits, a man reaps not so high a reward, as by carefully abstaining from animal food.

55. ,c Me he ( mdnsa) will devour in the next world, whose flesh I cat in this life thus should a flesheater Speak, atid thus the learned pronounce the true derivation of the word mdnsa , or flesh.

56. ‘ In lawfully tasting meat, in drinking fermented liquor, in caressing women, there is no turpitude ; for to such enjoyments men are naturally prone : but a virtuous abstinence from them produces a signal compensation.

57. ‘ Now will I promulgate the rules of purification for the dead, and the modes of purifying inanimate things, as the law prescribes them for the four classes in due order.

58. * When a child has teethed, and when, after teething, his head has been shorn, and when he has been girt with his thread, and when, being full grown, he dies, all his kindred are impure : on the birth of a child the law is the same.

59. * By a dead body, the sapindas are rendered impure in law for ten days, or until the fourth day , when the bones have been gathered up, or for three days, or for one day oply, according to the qualities of the deceased :

60. 1 Now the relation of the sapindas , or men connected by the funeral cake, ceases with the seventh person, or in the (both degree of ascent or descent , and that of samanddacas , or those connected by an equal oblation of water, ends only, when their births and familynames are no longer known.

61. ‘As this impurity, by reason of a dead kinsman, is orAND WOMEN. daincd for sapindas^ even thus it is ordained on a childbirth, for those who seek absolute purity.

62. 1 Uncleanness, on account of the dead, is ordained for all ; but on the birth of a child, for the mother and father : impurity, for ten days after the childbirth affects the mother only ; but the father, having bathed, becomes pure.

63. ‘A man, having wasted his manhood, is purified by bathing ; but, after begetting a child on a parapurvd, , he must meditate for three days on his impure state.

64. * In one day and night, added to nights three times three, the sapindas are purified after touching the corpse ; but the sarndnodacas , in three days.

65. ‘A pupil in theology, having performed the ceremony of burning his .deceased preceptor, becomes pure in ten nights : he is equal, in that case, to the sapindas , who carry out tbe dead.

66. * In a number of nights, equal to the number of months from conception, a woman is purified on a miscarriage ; and a woman in her courses is rendered pure by bathing, when her effusion of blood has quite stopped.

67. * For deceased male children, whose heads have not been shorn, purity is legally obtained in one night ; but for those, on whom that ceremony has been performed, a purification of three nights is required.

68. * A dead child under the age of two years, let his kinsmen carry out having decked him with flowers> and bury him in pure ground, without collecting his bones at a future time :

69. 1 Let no ceremony with fire be performed for him, nor that of sprinkling w'atcr ; but his kindred, having left him like a piece of wood in the forest, shall be unclean for three days.

70. 4 For a child under the age of three years, the ceremony with water shall not be perfomed by his kindred ; but, if his teeth be completely grown, or a name have been given him, they may perform it, or not, at their option. ->

71. ‘A fellpw student in theology being dead, three days of ON DIET ; PURIFICATION, impurity are ordained ; and, on the birth of a samdnddaca , purification is required for three nights.

72. * The relations of betrothed but unmarried damsels, are in three days made pure ; and, in as many, are their paternal kinsmen purified after their marriage :

73. ‘ Let them eat vegetable food without factitious, that is, only with native , salt ; let them bathe for three days at intervals ; let them taste no fleshmeat ; and let them sleep apart on the ground.

74. * This rule, which ordains impurity by reason of the dead, relates to the case of one dying near his kinsmen ; but, in the case of one dying at a distance, the following rule must be observed by those, who share the same cake, and by those, who share only the same water :

75. 4 The man, who hears that a kinsman is dead in a distant country, becomes unclean, if ten days after the death have not passed, for the remainder of those ten days only ;

76. * But, if the ten days have elapsed, he is impure for three nights, and, if a year have expired, he is purified merely by touching water.

77. 4 If, after the lapse of ten days, he know the death of a kinsman, or the birth of a male child, he must purify himself by bathing together with his clothes.

78. 4 Should a child, whose teeth are not grown, or should a samdnddaca , die in a distant region, the kinsman, having bathed with his apparel, becomes immediately pure.

79. 4 If, during the ten days, another death or another birth intervene, a Brdhmen , remains impure, only till those ten days have elapsed. «

80. 4 A spiritual teacher being dead, the sages declare his pupil impure for three days ; but for a day and a night, if the son or wife of the teacher be deceased : such is the sacred ordinanc^e.

81. 4 For a reader of the whole Vdda, who dwells in the same house, a man is unclean three nights ; but for a maternal uncle, a pupil, an officiating priest, and a distant kinsman, only one night winged with two days. AND WOMEN. *o$

82. * On the death of’a military king, in whose dominion he lives, his impurity lasts while the sun or the stars give light ; blit it lasts a whole day, on the death of a priest, who has not read the whole VMay or of a spiritual guide, who has read only part of it, with its Angus.

83. *A man of the sacerdotal class becomes pure in ten days ; of the warlike, in twelve j of the commercial, in five ; of the servile, in a month.

84. ‘ Let no man prolong the days of impurity ; let him not intermit the ceremonies to be performed with holy fires : while he performs those rites, even though he be a sapinda , he is not impure.

85. ‘He, who has touched a Bhanddla , a woman in her courses, an outcast for deadly sin, a newborn child, a corpse, or one who has touched a corpse, is made pure by bathing.

86. ‘ If, having sprinkled his mouth with water, and been long intent on his devotion, he see an unclean person, let him repeat, as well as he is able, the solar texts of the Vedat and those, which confer purity.

87. * Should a Brdhmen touch a human bone moist with oil, he is purified by bathing ; if it be not only, by stroking a cow, or by looking at the sun, having sprinkled his mouth duly with water.

88. ‘ A student in theology shall not perform the ceremony of pouring water at obsequies, until he has completed his course of religious acts ; but if, after the completion of them, he thus make an offering of water, he becomes pure in three nights.

89. ‘ For those, who discharge not their prescribed duties, for those, whose fathers were of a lower class than their mothers, for those, who wear a dress of religion unauthorized by the Veda , and for those, who illegally kill themselves, the ceremony of giving funeral water is forbidden by law ;

90. ‘And for women imitating such heretics, as wear an unlawful dress, and for such women as live at their own pleasure, or have caused an abortion, Or have stricken their husbands, or have drunk apy spirituous liquor. ' ON DIET, PURIFICATION, 9 r. ‘A student violates not the rules of his order, by carrying out, when dead, his own instructor in the V/das , who invested him with his holy cord, or his teacher of particular chapters, or his reverend expounder of their meaning, or his father, or his mother.

92. 1 Let men carry out a dead Si'tdra by the southern gate of the town ; but the twice-born, in due order, by the western, northern, and eastern gates.

93. ‘No taint of impurity can light on kings or students in theology, while employed in discharging their several duties , nor on those who have actually begun a sacrifice ; for the first are then placed on the seat of Indra, and the others are always equally pure with the celestial spirit.

94. •* To a king, on the throne of magnanimity, the law ascribes instant purification, because his throne 1 was raised for the protection of his people and the supply of their nourishment :

95. * It is the same with the kinsmeji of those, who die in battle, after the king has been slain, or have been killed by lightning, or legally by the king himself, or in defence of a cow, or of a priest; and with all those, whom the king wishes to be pure.

96. * The corporeal frame of a king is composed of particles from So'ma, Agni, Su'rya, Pavana, Indra, Cuve'ra, Varuna, and Yama, the eight guardian deities of the world :

97. ‘ By those guardians of men in substance is the king pervaded, and he cannot by law be impure ; since by those tutelar gods are the purity and impurity of mortals both caused and removed.

98. * By a soldier, discharging the duties of his class, and slain in the field with brandished weapons, the highest sacrifice is, in that instant, complete ; and so is his purification : this law is fixed.

99. ‘ A priest, having performed funeral rites, is purifie<jl by touching water ; a soldier, by touching his horse or elephant, or his arms ; a husbandman, by touching his goad, or the halter of his cattle ; a servant, by touching,his staff.

100. ‘This mode of ‘purifying sapindas, % 0 chief of the AND WOMEN. *°5 twice-born, has been fully declared to you ! learn now the purification required on the death of kinsmen less intimately connected.

101. i A Brahmen , having carried out a dead Brdhmen , though not a sapinda , with the affection of a kinsman, or any of those nearly related to him by his mother, becomes pure in three days ;

102. * But, if he taste the food offered by their sapindas , he is purified in ten days ; and in one day, if he neither partake of their food, nor dwell in the same house.

103. ‘ If he voluntarily follow a corpse, whether of a paternal kinsman or of another, and afterwards bathe with his apparel, he is made pure by tbuching fire and tasting clarified butter,

104. ‘ Let no kinsman, whilst any of his own class are at hand, cause a deceased Brdhmen to be carried out by a Siidra ; since the funeral rite, polluted by the touch of a servile man, obstructs his passage to heaven.

105. '‘Sacred learning, austere devotion, fire, holy aliment, earth, the mind, water, smearing with cowdung, air, prescribed acts of religion, the sun, and time, are purifiers of imbodied spirits ;

106. ‘ But of all pure things, purity in acquiring wealth, is pronounced the most excellent : since he, who gains wealth with clean hands, is truly pure ; not he, who is purified merely with earth and water.

107. ‘ By forgiveness of injuries, the learned are purified ; by liberality, those who have neglected their duty; by pious meditation, those who have secret faults ; by de#ut austerity, those who best know the VJda.

108. ‘ By water and earth is purified what ought to be made pure ; a river, by its current ; a woman, whose thoughts have been impure, by her monthly discharge, and the chief of twice-born men, by fijeing his mind wholly on God.

109. ‘Bodies are cleansed by water ; the mind is purified by truth ; the vital spirit, by theology and devotion ; the understanding, by clear knowledge. no ‘Thushave you heard me declare the precise rules for ON DIET, PURIFICATION, io 6 purifying animal bodies : hear now the modes of restoring purity to various inanimate things.

111. ‘* Of brilliant metals, of gems, and of every thing made with stone, the purification, ordained by the wise, is with ashes, water, and earth.

112. * A golden vessel, not smeared, is cleansed with water only; and every thing produced in water, as coral, shells , or pearls , and every stony substance, and a silver vessel not enchased.

113. ‘ From a junction of water and fire arose gold and silver ; and they two, therefore, are best purified by the elements, whence they sprang.

114. * Vessels of copper, iron, brass, pewter, tin and lead may be fitly cleansed with ashes, with acids, or with water.

115. ‘The purification ordained for all sorts of liquids, is by stirring them with cusa-g rass ; for clothes solded, by sprinkling them with hallowed water ; for wooden utensils, by planing them ;

116. ‘For the sacrificial pots to hold clarified butter and juice of the moonplant, by rubbing them with the hand, and washing them, at the time of the sacrifice : .

117. ‘ Implements to wash the rice, to contain the oblations, to cast them into the fire, to collect, winnow, and prepare the grain, must be purified with water made hot.

118. ‘ The purification by sprinkling is ordained for grain and cloths in large quantities ; but, to purify them in small parcels, which a man may easily carry , they must be washed.

119. ‘leathern utensils, and such as are made with cane, must generally be purified in the same manner with cloths ; green vegetables, roots, and fruit, in the same manner with grain ;

120. ‘ Silk and woolen stuff, with saline earths ; blankets from Ntydla, with pounded arisktas, or nimba fruit ; vests and long drawers, with the fruit of the Bilva ; mantles of eshumdy with &hite mustard-seeds.

121. * Untensils made of .shells or of horn, of bones or of ivory, must be cleansed #byJiim, who knows the law, as mantles of eshurnd are purified, with the addition of cows' urine or water. AND WOMEN.

122. ‘ Grass, firewood, and straw, are purified by sprinkling them with water ; a house, by rubbing, brushing, and smearing with cowdung ; an earthen pot, by a second burning :

123. * But an earthen pot, which has been touched with any, spirituous liquor, with urine, with ordure, with spittle, with pus, or with blood, cannot, even by another burning, be rendered pure.

124. ‘Land is cleansed by five modes; by sweeping, by smearing with cowdung, by sprinkling with cows' urine, by scraping, or by letting a cow pass a day and a night on it.

125. ‘A thing nibbled by a bird, smelt at by a cow, shaken with a foot, sneezed on, or defiled by lice, is purified by earth scattered over it.

126. ‘As long as the scent or moisture, caused by any impurity, remain on the thing soiled, so long must earth and water, be repeatedly used in all purifications of things inanimate.

127. ‘The Gods declared three pure things peculiar to Brdhmens ; what has been defiled without their knowledge, what, in cases of doubt, they sprinkled with water; and what they commend with their speech.

128. ‘ Waters are pure, as far as a cow goes to quench her thirst in them, if they flow over clean earth, and are sullied by no impurity, but have a good scent, colour, and taste.

129. ‘ The hand of an artist employed in his art is always pure ; so is every vendible commodity, when exposed to sale ; and that food is always clean, which a student in theology has begged and received : such is the sacred rule.

130. ‘The mouth of a woman is constantly pure ; a bird is pure on the fall of fruit, which he has pecked ; a sucking animal, on the flowing of the milk ; a dog, on his catching the deer:

131. ‘The flesh of a wild beast slain by dogs, Menu pronounces pure ; and that of an animal slain by other carnivorous creatures, or by men of the mixed class, who subsist by hunting.

132. ‘All the cavities above the navel are pure, and all below it, unclean ; so are all excretions, that fall from the body.

133. ‘Gnats, clear drops from the mouth of a speaker, a shadow, a cow, a horse, sunbeams, dyst, earth, air, and fire, must ioS ON DIET, PURIFICATION, all be considered as clean, even when' they touch an unclean thing.

134. 1 For the cleansing of vessels, which have held ordure or urine, earth and water must be used, as long as they are needful ; and the same for cleansing the twelve corporeal impurities :

135. ‘ Oily exudations, seminal fluids, blood, dandruff, urine, feces, earwax, nailparings, phelgm, tears, concretions on the eyes, and sweat, are the twelve impurities of the human frame.

136. * By the man, who desires purity, one piece of earth together with water must be used for the conduit of urine, three, for that of the feces ; so, ten for one hand, that is, the left ; then seven for both : but, if necessary , more must be used.

137. * Such is the purification of married men; that of students must be double ; that of hermits, triple ; that of men wholey recluse, quadruple.

138. ‘ Let each man sprinkle the cavities of his body, and taste water in due form, when he has discharged urine or feces ; when he is going to read the Vtda ; and, invariably, before he takes his food :

139. ‘First, let him thrice taste water; then twice let him wipe his mouth, if he be of a twice-born class , and desire corporeal purity ; but a woman or servile man may once respectively make that ablution.

140. ‘ Sudras , engaged in religious duties, must perform each month the ceremony of shaving their heads ; their food must be the orts of Brdhmem ; and their mode of purification, the same with that of a Vaisya .

141. * Such drops of water, as fall from the mouth on any part of the body, render it not unclean ; nor hairs of the beard, that enter the mouth ; nor what adheres awhile to the teeth.

142. ‘ Drops, which trickle on the feet of a man holding water for others, are held equal to waters flowing over pure ea^;h : by them he is not defiled.

143. ‘ He, who carries in any manner an inanimate burden, and is touched by any thing infpure, is cleansed by making an ablution, without laying hi* burden down. AND WOMEN.

144. * Having vomited or been purged, let him bathe and taste clarified butter, but, if he have eaten already, let him only perform an ablution : for him, who has been connected with a woman, bathing is ordained by law.

145. ' Having slumbered, having sneezed, having eaten, having spitten, having told untruths, having drunk water, and going to read sacred books, let him, though pure, wash his mouth. 14& ‘ This perfect system of rules for purifying men of all classes, and for cleansing inanimate things, has been declared to you : hear now the laws concerning women,

147. ‘By a girl, or by a young woman, or by a woman advanced in years, nothing must be done, even in her own dwelling place, according to her mere pleasure :

148. * In childhood must a female be dependent on her father ; in youth, on her husband ; her lord being dead, on her sons ; if she have 710 sons, on the near kinsmen of her husband ; if he left no kinsmen, on those of her father ; if she have no paternal kinsmen, on the sovereign : a woman must never seek independence.

149. ‘ Never let her wish to separate herself from her father, her husband, or her sons ; for, by a separation from them, she expose, both families to contempt.

150. ‘She must always live with a cheerful temper, with good management in the affairs of the house, with great care of the household furniture, and with a frugal hand in all her cxpcnccs.

151. ‘Him, to whom her father has given her, or her brother with the paternal assent, let her obsequiously honor, while he lives ; and, when he dies, let her never neglect him, »

152. * The recitation of holy texts, and the sacrifice ordained by the lord of creatures, are used in marriages for the sake of procuring good fortune to brides ; but the first gift, or troth plighted , by the husband is the primary cause and origin of marital dominion.

153. ‘When the husband has performed the nuptial rites with texts of the JfJda, he gives bliss continually to his wife here IIO ON DIET, PURIFICATION, below, both in season and out of season ; and he will give her happiness in the next world.

154. ‘Though inobservant of approved usages, or enamoured of another woman, or devoid of good qualities, yet a husband must constantly be revered as a god by a virtuous wife.

155. ‘No sacrifice is allowed to women apart from their husbands, no religious rite, no fasting : as far only as a wife honors her lord, so far she is exalted in heaven.

156. ‘A faithful wife, who wishes to attain in heaven the mansion of her husband, must do nothing unkind to him, be he living or dead :

157. ‘ Let her emaciate her body, by living voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruit ; but let her not, when her lord is deceased, even pronounce the name of another man.

158. ‘Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women, as were devoted to one only husband.

159. ‘ Many thousands of Brdhmens , having avoided sensuality from their early youth, and having left no issue in their families, have ascended, nevertheless , to heaven ;

160. ‘ And, like those abstemious men, a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though she have no child, if, after the decease of her lord, she devote herself to pious austerity :

161. ‘ But a widow, who, frogi a wish to bear children, slights her deceased husband by marrying again , brings disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of her lord. \

162. ‘ Issue, begotten on a woman by any other than her husband , is here declared to be no progeny of hers ; no more than a child, begotten on the wife of another man, belongs _ to the r begetter : nor is a second husband allowed, in any part of this code, to a virtuous woman.

163. ‘ She, who neglects her former ( purva ) lord, though of a lower class, and takes another (para) of a higher, becomes despiAND WOMEN. hi cable in this world, and is called paraptirvd> or one who had a different husband before .

164. ‘A married woman, who violates the duty, which she owes to her lord, brings infamy on herself in this life, and, in the next , shall enter the womb of a shakal, or be afflicted with elephantiasis , and other diseases, which punish crimes ;

165. ‘ While she, who slights not her lord, but keeps her mind, speech, and body, devoted to him, attains his heavenly mansion, and by good men is called sddhvl , or virtuous .

166. ‘Yes ; by this course of life it is, that a woman, whose mind, speech, and body arc kept in subjection, acquires high renown in this world, and, in the next, the same abode with her husband.

167. 1 A twice-born man, versed in sacred ordinances, must burn, with hallowed fire and fit implements of sacrifice, his wife dying before him, if she was of his own class, and lived by these rules :

168. ‘Having thus kindled sacred fires, and performed funeral rites to his wife, who died before him, he may again marry, and again light the nuptial fire.

169. ‘Let him not cease to perform day by day according to the preceding rules, the five great sacraments ; and, having taken a lawful consort, let him dwell in his house during the second period of his life.