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V, 58.
53. He who during a hundred years annually offers a horse-sacrifice, and he who entirely abstains from meat, obtain the same reward for their meritorious (conduct).
54. By subsisting on pure fruit and roots, and by eating food fit for ascetics (in the forest), one does not gain (so great) a reward as by entirely avoiding (the use of) flesh.
LAWFUL AND FORBIDDEN FOOD; IMPURITY.
177
55. 'Me he (mâm sah)' will devour in the next (world), whose flesh I eat in this (life); the wise declare this (to be) the real meaning of the word 'flesh' (mâmsah).
56. There is no sin in eating meat, in (drinking) spirituous liquor, and in carnal intercourse, for that is the natural way of created beings, but abstention brings great rewards.
57. I will now in due order explain the purifica-. tion for the dead and the purification of things as they are prescribed for the four castes (varía).
58. When (a child) dies that has teethed, or that before teething has received (the sacrament of) the tonsure (Kudâkarana) or (of the initiation), all relatives (become) impure, and on the birth (of a child) the same (rule) is prescribed.
54. Munyannâni, 'food fit for ascetics (in the forest),' i.e. 'wild rice and other produce of the forest.'
56. There is no sin,' i.e. in doing these things when they are permitted by law.
58-104. Ap. I, 15, 18; II, 15, 2-11; Gaut. XIV; Vas. IV, 16–37; Baudh. I, 11, 1-8, 17-23, 27-32; Vi. XXII; Yâgn. III, 1-30.
58. Medh. and Gov. explain anugâte, translated freely by 'before teething,' as the conventional designation of 'a child that is younger than one that has teethed' (gâtadantâd bâlatara iti smaranti), and Nâr. and Râgh. agree to this interpretation. Kull., however, seems to take it in the sense of 'after teething,' and Nand. explains it as 'one who has been born again, i.e. has been initiated.' Gov.,
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