Cultural Study of Nisitha Curni

SR No.: 001743
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Madhu Sen
Publisher: Sohanlal Jain Dharm Pracharak Samiti Amrutsar
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 432
Language: English, Prakrit
Classification: Book_English, Agam, Canon, & Literature
File Size: 23 MB

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A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
was to take a bath with his clothes on.' Yuan Ch wang also records the same practice that "those who attend a funeral are regarded as unclean and they all wash outside the city walls before entering the city'.2 The house of the deceased or the place where the dead body was kept was to be sprinkled with water and smeared with cowdung. The ancient law-givers believed that “a polluted house is to be purified by being swept and cowdunged."4
After death a period of 10 days of impurity was observed during which the near relatives of the deceased were held as impure or uclean. The practice of 10 to 13 days of impurity is enjoyed by almost all the law-givers and is a living practice even now amongst the Jainao and non-Jaina society.' Yuan Chwang also observed that no one goes to take food in a family afflicted by death till the funeral rites are over and normalcy dwells once again. The period of impurity ended after offering oblation to the deceased or by observing such other religious rites. Bāņa after the death of Prabhākaravardhana narrates : “The Brāhmaṇa, who consumes the departed soul's first oblation, has now partaken of his meals. The horror of the days of impurity has passed”. Kalidasa also refers to the same custom when he states that ten days after the death of a father the offering of rice-balls (pin la) by the son to the manes of their departed ancestors were considered meritorious.'Due consideration was also taken to observe the
1. gata sett at vergot-NC. 3, p. 99. 2. Watters, op. cit., 1, p. 175; Beal, op. cit., 1, p. 86. 3. HafiH OET 09 foizi 55-NG. 3, p. 99. 4. Yājñavaik ya smrti, 1. 187;Visnusmrti, 23. 56; sec also-Kane, op. cit.,
Vol. IV, p. 231. 5. Tift371 AT TIGHT757_NC. 4, p. 280. 6. Sangave, op. cit., p. 361. 7. Kane, op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 308. 8. Watters, op. cit., 1, p. 175; Beal, op. cit., 1, p. 86. 9. Harsacarita, p. 164, text p. 115. 10. Raghuvansa, VII, 73. .