Sacred Texts  Hinduism  Index  Previous  Next 
Buy this Book at Amazon.com



1. Through a period of three nights (after the Samâvartana) he should keep (the following) observances.

2. He shall eat no flesh and not drink out of an earthen vessel.

3. He shall avoid seeing women, Sûdras, dead bodies, black birds, and dogs, and shall not talk to (such beings).

4. He shall not eat funeral food, or food of a

p. 319

[paragraph continues] Sûdra, or of a woman lying-in (during the period of her impurity).

5. He shall not void urine or excrements, or spit out in the sun-shine, and shall riot cover himself against the sun.

6. He shall take warm water for (the rites) in which water is wanted.

7. At night he shall eat by the light (of a lamp or a fire-brand).

8. Or only speaking the truth (suffices instead of the other observances).

9. Also a person who has received the dîkshâ (or inauguration for a Soma sacrifice), should observe these rules beginning from (that which regards) the sun-shine (Sûtra 5), if he performs the Pravargya ceremony.


318:1 8, 1. The words of this Sûtra are repeated from Satapatha Brâhmana XIV, 1, 1, 28 (only for karati it is said here karet).

318:2 Satapatha Brâhmana l.l. § 30.

318:3 Satapatha Brâhmana l.l. § 31. Black birds, according to the commentators, mean crows.

318:4 Funeral food is such food as described below, III, 10, 26.

319:9 The Pravargya ceremony, one of the preparatory ceremonies of the Soma sacrifice (Indische Studien, X, 363), was not performed at every Soma sacrifice, but there were certain restrictions regarding its performance; see Indische Studien, IX, 219 seq.

Next: II, 9