Manusmriti
Major Sections
Scriptures

Manusmriti: The Laws of Manu

 
101. Taking (from him) the club (which he must carry), the king himself shall strike him once, by his death the thief becomes pure; or a Brahmana (may purify himself) by austerities.

102. He who desires to remove by austerities the guilt of stealing the gold (of a Brahmana), shall perform the penance (prescribed) for the slayer of a Brahmana, (living) in a forest and dressed in (garments) made of bark.

103. By these penances a twice-born man may remove the guilt incurred by a theft (of gold); but he may atone for connexion with a Guru's wife by the following penances.

104. He who has violated his Guru's bed, shall, after confessing his crime, extend himself on a heated iron bed, or embrace the red-hot image (of a woman); by dying he becomes pure;

105. Or, having himself cut off his organ and his testicles and having taken them in his joined hands, he may walk straight towards the region of Nirriti (the south-west), until he falls down (dead);

106. Or, carrying the foot of a bedstead, dressed in (garments of) bark and allowing his beard to grow, he may, with a concentrated mind, perform during a whole year the Krikkhra (or hard, penance), revealed by Pragapati, in a lonely forest;

107. Or, controlling his organs, he may during three months continuously perform the lunar penance, (subsisting) on sacrficial food or barley-gruel, in order to remove (the guilt of) violating a Guru's bed.

108. By means of these penances men who have committed mortal sins (Mahapataka) may remove their guilt, but those who committed minor offences, causing loss of caste, (Upapataka, can do it) by the various following penances.

109. He who has committed a minor offence by slaying a cow (or bull) shall drink during (the first) month (a decoction of) barley-grains; having shaved all his hair, and covering himself with the hide (of the slain cow), he must live in a cow-house.

110. During the two (following) months he shall eat a small (quantity of food) without any factitious salt at every fourth meal-time, and shall bathe in the urine of cows, keeping his organs under control.

 

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Chapter XI
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