Praśna I, Paṭala 9, Khaṇḍa 27

1. After having eaten sesamum or having fasted on the full moon day of the month Srāvaṇa July-August), he may on the following day bathe in the water of a great river and offer (a burnt-oblation of) one thousand pieces of sacred fuel, whilst. reciting the Gāyatrī, or he may mutter (the Gāyatrī) as many times.^[1]

2. Or he may perform Iṣṭis and Soma-sacrifices for the sake of purifying himself (from his sins),^[2]

3. After having eaten forbidden food, he must fast, until his entrails are empty.^[3]

4. That is (generally) attained after seven days.

5. Or he may during winter and during the dewy season (November-March) bathe in cold water both morning and evening.

6. Or he may perform a Kṛcchra penance, which lasts twelve days.

7. The rule for the Kṛcchra penance of twelve days (is the following): For three days he must not eat in the evening, and then for three days not in the morning; for three days he must live on food which has been given unasked, and three days he must not eat anything.^[4]

8. If he repeats this for a year, that is called a Kṛcchra penance, which lasts for a year.

9. Now follows another penance. He who has committed even a great many sins which do not cause him to fall, becomes free from guilt, if, fasting, he recites the entire Śākhā of his Veda three times consecutively.^[5]

10. He who cohabits with a non-Aryan woman, he who lends money at interest, he who drinks (other) spirituous liquors (than Surā), he who praises everybody in a manner unworthy of a Brāhmaṇa, shall sit on grass, allowing his back to be scorched (by the sun).

11. A Brāhmaṇa removes the sin which he committed by serving one day and night (a man of) the black race, if he bathes for three years, eating at every fourth meal-time.^[6]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

27. 'The oblations of sacred fuel (samidh) are not to be accompanied by the exclamation Svāhā'--Haradatta.

[2]:

Iṣṭis are the simplest forms of the Śrauta-sacrifices, i.e. of those for which three fires are necessary.

[3]:

For some particular kinds of forbidden food the same penance is prescribed, Manu XI, 153-154.

[4]:

The same penance is described, under the name Prājāpatya kṛcchra, the Kṛcchra invented by Prajāpati, Manu XI, 212, and Yājñ. III, 320.

[5]:

Manu XI, 259.

[6]:

The expression kṛṣṇa varṇa, 'the black race,' is truly Vedic. In the Ṛj-veda it usually denotes the aboriginal races, and sometimes the demons. Others explain the Sūtra thus: p. 88 A Brāhmaṇa removes the sin, which he committed by cohabiting for one night with a female of the Śūdra caste, &c.--Haradatta. The latter explanation has been adopted by Kullūka on Manu XI. 179.