Manusmriti
Major Sections
Scriptures

Manusmriti: The Laws of Manu

101. A Brahmana, having carried out a dead Brahmana who is not a Sapinda, as (if he were) a (near) relative, or a near relative of his mother, becomes pure after three days;

102. But if he eats the food of the (Sapindas of the deceased), he is purified in ten days, (but) in one day, if he does not eat their food nor dwells in their house.

103. Having voluntarily followed a corpse, whether (that of) a paternal kinsman or (of) a stranger, he becomes pure by bathing, dressed in his clothes, by touching fire and eating clarfied butter.

104. Let him not allow a dead Brahmana to be carried out by a Sudra, while men of the same caste are at hand; for that burnt-firing which is filled by a Sutra's touch is detrimental to (the deceased's passage to) heaven.

105. The knowledge (of Brahman) austerities, fire, (holy) food, earth, (restraint of) the internal organ, water, smearing (with cow dung), the wind, sacred rites, the sun, and time are the purifiers of corporeal (beings).

106. Among all modes of purification, purity in (the acquisition of) wealth is declared to be the best; for he is pure who gains wealth with clean hands, not he who purifies himself with earth and water.

107. The learned are purified by a forgiving disposition, those who have committed forbidden actions by liberality, secret sinners by muttering (sacred texts), and those who best know the Veda by austerities.

108. By earth and water is purified what ought to be made pure, a river by its current, a woman whose thoughts have been impure by the menstrual secretion, a Brahmana by abandoning the world (Samnyasa).

109. The body is cleansed by water, the internal organ is purified by truthfulness, the individual soul by sacred learning and austerities, the intellect by (true) knowledge. 

110. Thus the precise rules for the purfication of the body have been declared to you; hear now the decision (of the law) regarding the purfication of the various (inanimate) things.

 

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