manusmriti

LAWS OF MANU
Rites of Bodily Purification
Death of Close Relations (Sapinda)
57. I will now in due order explain the purification for the dead and the purification
of things as they are prescribed for the four castes (varna).
58. When (a child) dies that has teethed, or that before teething has received (the
sacrament of) the tonsure (Kudakarana) or (of the initiation), all relatives (become)
impure, and on the birth (of a child) the same (rule) is prescribed.
59. It is ordained (that) among Sapindas the impurity on account of a death (shall
last) ten days, (or) until the bones have been collected, (or) three days or one day
only.
60. But the Sapinda-relationship ceases with the seventh person (in the
ascending and descending lines), the Samanodaka-relationship when the (common)
origin and the (existence of a common family)- name are no (longer) known.
61. As this impurity on account of a death is prescribed for (all) Sapindas, even
so it shall be (held) on a birth by those who desire to be absolutely pure.
62. (Or while) the impurity on account of a death is common to all (Sapindas),
that caused by a birth (falls) on the parents alone; (or) it shall fall on the mother alone,
and the father shall become pure by bathing;
63. But a man, having spent his strength, is purified merely by bathing; after
begetting a child (on a remarried female), he shall retain the impurity during three
days.
64. Those who have touched a corpse are purified after one day and night
(added to) three periods of three days; those who give libations of water, after three
days.
65. A pupil who performs the Pitrimedha for his deceased teacher, becomes also
pure after ten days, just like those who carry the corpse out (to the burial-ground).
66. (A woman) is purified on a miscarriage in as many (days and) nights as
months (elapsed after conception), and a menstruating female becomes pure by
bathing after the menstrual secretion has ceased (to flow).
67. (On the death) of children whose tonsure (Kudakarman) has not been
performed, the (Sapindas) are declared to become pure in one (day and) night; (on
the death) of those who have received the tonsure (but not the initiation, the law)
ordains (that) the purification (takes place) after three days.
68. A child that has died before the completion of its second year, the relatives
shall carry out (of the village), decked (with flowers, and bury it) in pure ground,
without collecting the bones (afterwards).
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