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XI, 77.
PENANCES FOR MURDER.
445
during twelve years, subsisting on alms and making the skull of a dead man his flag;
74. Or let him, of his own free will, become in a battle) the target of archers who know (his purpose); or he may thrice throw himself headlong into a blazing fire;
75. Or he may offer a horse-sacrifice, a Svargit, a Gosava, an Abhigit, a Visvagit, a Trivrit, or an Agnishtut;
76. Or, in order to remove (the guilt of) slaying a Brâhmana, he may walk one hundred yoganas, reciting one of the Vedas, eating little, and controlling his organs;
77. Or he may present to a Brâhmana, learned in
• 74. Vidushâm, who know (his purpose), ' (Medh., Gov., Kull.), may also mean according to Medh. who are expert in archery,' and Nand. adopts this explanation. Nâr. thinks that this penance must be performed by one who intentionally murdered a Brâhmana, and that it must end in his death. According to the Bhavishyapurâna which Kull. and Râgh. quote, these two penances and that mentioned in the next verse are to be performed by a Kshatriya who slew a Brâhmana, those ending in death by an offender who himself, destitute of good qualities, killed a learned Srotriya, and the lighter ones by an eminent king who unintentionally caused the death of a worthless Brahmana.
75. According to the Bhavishyapurâna, Nâr. and Kull., Svargit is the name of a sacrifice, but Medh. (on verse 78) and Râgh. take the word as an adjective qualifying Gosava. Regarding the Gosava, see Kâtyâyana Sr. Satras XXII, 11, 3; regarding the Abhigit, Asv. Sr. Sätras VIII, 5, 13. According to Gov. and Nâr., Trivrit is equivalent to Trivritstoma, and to be taken separately; but accord. ing to Medh. and Râgh., trivritâ qualifies Agnish/ut. Regarding the Agnishtut, see Äsv. Sr. Sætras IX, 7, 22–25.
76. According to Nár., Kull., and Ragh. (the latter two quoting the Bhavishyapurâna as their authority), this penance suffices to expiate the unintentional slaughter of one who has nothing but the name of a Brahmana.
77. I read with Medh., Gov., and K., dhanam hi instead of
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