Verse 5.75

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

अतिक्रान्ते दशाहे च त्रिरात्रमशुचिर्भवेत् ।
संवत्सरे व्यतीते तु स्पृष्ट्वैवापो विशुध्यति ॥ ७५ ॥

atikrānte daśāhe ca trirātramaśucirbhavet |
saṃvatsare vyatīte tu spṛṣṭvaivāpo viśudhyati || 75 ||

If the period of ten days has elapsed, he shall remain impure for three days; but when a year has elapsed, he becomes pure by merely touching water.—(75).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

In cases where the period of impurity ordained lasts for ten days or more,—if this period has elapsed, the impurity shall last for three days. But in cases where the period ordained lasts for three days, or one day, or less,—if this period has elapsed, one has simply to bathe along with his clothes: as is going to be laid down later—(Verse 77.)

‘When a year has elapsed’—one becomes pure ‘by touching water’,—i.e., by bathing. From what has been said elsewhere regarding ‘touching water with the hands and feet &c.’, it is clear that the whole body is to touch water: and this is what constitutes ‘bathing’.—(75).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

(Verse 76 of others.)

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (on 3.21) in support of the view that in the case of one hearing of the death of a relative in other countries, after one year of the death, he becomes purified by bathing and making the water-offering;—in Madanapārijāta (p. 428), where ‘āpaḥ

spṛṣtvā’ is explained as ‘bathing’; and it adds that this refers to cases of the death of relatives other than the Father or the Mother;—in Nirṇaysindhu (p. 385);—in Hāralatā (p. 32), which explains the meaning to be that ‘after the lapse of ten days and upto one year, the Sapiṇḍas are impure for three days, and after one year, the Sapiṇḍas become pure by mere bathing, but not so the parents of the dead’;—in Kṛtyasārasamuccaya (p. 70);—in Nityācārapradīpa (p. 126);—and in Śuddhikaumudī (p. 34 and 73), which adds that ‘daśāha’ stands for the full period of impurity.