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Vol. XX, 1996
NIRAVASITA
57
Agni a cake on eight potsherds", Srautakosa (Eng.sec.), p.152. 28. Atha yasya jāyām ārtavarit vindet tryahan kaunse na pibed ahatavāsā nenām vrtalo na vrsaly upalanyāt, BU. 6.4.13.
Every thing that is touched by a woman during her periods becomes polluted and unfit to be offered to gods. So Baudhāyana prescribes that the oblation becomes polluted if it is touched by a woman in menses (Atha havirdosan
vyākhyāsyāmah. Yatlitat ... rajasvalyā vā sprstam ... BÁS. 27.9). 29. Srautakośa (Eng. sec.), p. 84 = BśS. 29.12 : Atha yadi patnim stviyann vindeta prāg
daksināyā etad eva (ādita arabhyanyasmin kāla ādadhyāt) ata ürdhivam aparodhah.
30. ibid. p. 84 = KśS. 25.11.14: (Jyotiştomādau dikşitasya) patni rajasvalā dīksārūpāni
sankvādīni nidhāya sika sīta ā raktaviramaņāt. tisthet sandhivelayoh.
31. ibid. p. 182 = BśS. 29.12.
32. ibid. p. 197 = Vaikhānasa-Śrauta-sútra, 20.4.
33. Tad āhur ya āhitāgnir yadi sūta kännam prāsnīyāt kā tatra prāyascittir iti so gnaye
tantumate - stākapalam purodāśari nirvapet tasya yājyānuvākye täntum tānvan rajaso bhānuman vi hy akşan ala nahyatānota sonyā ity älutīm vāhavanīye juhuyād agnaye tāntumate svāheti să tatra prāyaścittih, AB. 7.9. TB. 1.3.7 prescribes purification for
the husband also in the case of sūtaka. 34. Āpastamba allows sūdras to be cooks in brāhmaṇa households provided they were
supervised by a member of the three higlier classes and observed certain hygienic rules about paring nails, cutting of hair āryādhisthitā vā sūdrāh sanskartārah syuh, Apds. 2.2.3.4). He prohibits the consumption of food brought by an impure südra. (aprayatena tu sudrenopalırtam abhojyam, ApDS. 1.5.16.23). Gautama permits the brālmanas to eat food from a südra who has his own cowherd, or tilled his field, or was a hereditory friend of the family, or his own barber or his dāsa (Gautama 17.1 and 6). Other law givers narrowed down the possibilities of common meal when time passed favourable to the rigidity of castes. The Sankhasmrti (13.4) condemns the brāhmana who is fattened on the food given by sūdra as
panktidūsaka. See also : History of Dharmaśāstra, vol. 2, pt. 1, pp. 161f. 35. Anantarāsu jātānām vidhir esa sanātah / dvyekāntarāsu jātārārit dharmyam vidyād imarii vidhim // Manu. 10.7.
The underlying principle is that while the son a kshatriya or vaisya looses the