Pra<I>s</I>na I, Pa<I>t</I>ala 9, Kha<I>n</I><I>d</I>a 27

PRASNA I, PATALA 9, KHANDA 27.

1. After having eaten sesamum or having fasted on the full moon day of the month Srâvana July-August), he may on the following day bathe in the water of a great river and offer (a burnt-oblation of) one thousand pieces of sacred fuel, whilst. reciting the Gâyatrî, or he may mutter (the Gâyatrî) as many times. ¹

2. Or he may perform Ishtis and Soma-sacrifices for the sake of purifying himself (from his sins), ²

3. After having eaten forbidden food, he must fast, until his entrails are empty. ³

4. That is (generally) attained after seven days.

5. Or he may during winter and during the dewy

p. 87

season (November-March) bathe in cold water both morning and evening.

6. Or he may perform a Krikkhra penance, which lasts twelve days.

7. The rule for the Krikkhra penance of twelve days (is the following): For three days he must not eat in the evening, and then for three days not in the morning; for three days he must live on food which has been given unasked, and three days he must not eat anything. ⁷

8. If he repeats this for a year, that is called a Krikkhra penance, which lasts for a year.

9. Now follows another penance. He who has committed even a great many sins which do not cause him to fall, becomes free from guilt, if, fasting, he recites the entire Sâkhâ of his Veda three times consecutively. ⁹

10. He who cohabits with a non-Aryan woman, he who lends money at interest, he who drinks (other) spirituous liquors (than Surâ), he who praises everybody in a manner unworthy of a Brâhmana, shall sit on grass, allowing his back to be scorched (by the sun).

11. A Brâhmana removes the sin which he committed by serving one day and night (a man of) the black race, if he bathes for three years, eating at every fourth meal-time. ¹¹

Footnotes

86:1 27. 'The oblations of sacred fuel (samidh) are not to be accompanied by the exclamation Svâhâ'--Haradatta.

86:2 Ishtis are the simplest forms of the Srauta-sacrifices, i.e. of those for which three fires are necessary.

86:3 For some particular kinds of forbidden food the same penance is prescribed, Manu XI, 153-154.

87:7 The same penance is described, under the name Prâgâpatya krikkhra, the Krikkhra invented by Pragâpati, Manu XI, 212, and Yâgñ. III, 320.

87:9 Manu XI, 259.

87:11 The expression krishna varna, 'the black race,' is truly Vedic. In the Rig-veda it usually denotes the aboriginal races, and sometimes the demons. Others explain the Sûtra thus: p. 88 A Brâhmana removes the sin, which he committed by cohabiting for one night with a female of the Sûdra caste, &c.--Haradatta. The latter explanation has been adopted by Kullûka on Manu XI. 179.