Manusmriti
Major Sections
Scriptures

Manusmriti: The Laws of Manu

81. For a Srotriya who resides with (him out of fiction), a man shall be impure for three days; for a maternal uncle, a pupil, an officiating priest, or a maternal relative, for one night together with the preceding and following days.

82. If the king in whose realm he resides is dead, (he shall be impure) as long as the light (of the sun or stars shines), but for (an intimate friend) who is not a Srotriya (the impurity lasts) for a whole day, likewise for a Guru who knows the Veda and the Angas.

83. A Brahmana shall be pure after ten days, a Kshatriya after twelve, a Vaisya after fifteen, and a Sudra is purified after a month.

84. Let him not (unnecessarily) lengthen the period of impurity, nor interrupt the rites to be performed with the sacred fires; for he who performs that (Agnihotra) rite will not be impure, though (he be) a (Sapinda) relative.

85. When he has touched a Kandala, a menstruating woman, an outcast, a woman in childbed, a corpse, or one who has touched a (corpse), he becomes pure by bathing.

86. He who has purified himself by sipping water shall, on seeing any impure (thing or person), always mutter the sacred texts, addressed to Surya, and the Pavamani (verses).

87. A Brahmana who has touched a human bone to which fat adheres, becomes pure by bathing; if it be free from fat, by sipping water and by touching (afterwards) a cow or looking at the sun.

88. He who has undertaken the performance of a vow shall not pour out libations (to the dead) until the vow has been completed; but when he has fired water after its completion, he becomes pure in three days only.

89. Libations of water shall not be fired to those who (neglect the prescribed rites and may be said to) have been born in vain, to those born in consequence of an illegal mixture of the castes, to those who are ascetics (of heretical sects), and to those who have committed suicide,

90. To women who have joined a heretical sect, who through lust live (with many men), who have caused an abortion, have killed their husbands, or drink spirituous liquor.

 

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