Praśna I, Adhyāya 5, Kaṇḍikā 9

1. The Veda declares that the hand of an artisan is always pure, so is every vendible commodity exposed for sale and food obtained by begging, which a student holds in. his hand.^[1]

2. A calf is pure on the flowing (of the milk), a bird on the fall of the fruit, women at the time of dalliance, and a dog when he catches a deer.^[2]

3. All mines and places of manufacture are pure excepting distilleries of spirituous liquor; continuously flowing streams of water and dust raised by the wind cannot be contaminated.^[3]

4. The flowers and fruit of flowering and fruit-bearing trees which grow in unclean places are likewise not impure.

5. On touching a tree standing on a sacred spot, a funeral pile, a sacrificial post, a Caṇḍāla or a person who sells the Veda, a Brāhmaṇa shall bathe dressed in his clothes.^[4]

6. One's own couch, seat, clothes, wife, child, and waterpot are pure for oneself; but for strangers they are impure.

7. A seat, a couch, a vehicle, ships (and boats), the road and grass are purified by the wind, if they have been touched by Caṇḍālas or outcasts.^[5]

8. Grain on the threshing-floor, water in wells and reservoirs, and milk in the cowpen are fit for use even (if they come) from a person whose food must not be eaten.^[6]

9. The gods created for Brāhmaṇas three means of purification, (viz.) ignorance of defilement, sprinkling with water, and commending by word of mouth.^[7]

10. Water collected on the ground with which^[8] cows slake their thirst is a means of purification, provided it is not strongly mixed with unclean (substances), nor has a (bad) smell, nor is discoloured, nor has a (bad) taste.

11. But land becomes pure, according to the degree of the defilement, by sweeping the (defiled) spot, by sprinkling it with water, by smearing it with cowdung, by scattering (pure earth) on it, or by scraping it.^[9]

12. Now they quote also (the following verse):

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

9. Viṣṇu XXIII, 48.

[2]:

Viṣṇu XXIII, 49.

[3]:

Viṣṇu XXIII, 48. The term ākara, translated by 'mines and places of manufacture,' is explained in the commentary by 'places of production, i.e. of sugar and honey.' It is no doubt intended to apply to any place where articles of consumption or use are produced. Govinda adds that as 'continuous streams of water' are always pure, one must take care that the water for sipping flows out of the vessel in an unbroken stream.

[4]:

Vasiṣṭha IV, 37. Caityavṛkṣa, 'a tree standing on sacred ground,' means literally, 'a memorial-tree.'

[5]:

Govinda points out that couches and seats and the like, on which Caṇḍālas and outcasts have lain or sat down, must be purified.

[6]:

'That must be referred to grain on a threshing-floor, and so forth, which has been produced by men whose food must not be eaten, and again is considered to be common to all. In this case, too, what has been received from outcasts and Caṇḍālas, that is defiled. Milk which has been received just at milking-time may be drunk out of a vessel that stands in the cowpen.'--Govinda. As regards the grain produced by low-caste people, the rule probably refers to cases where the land of an Agrahāra or other village is cultivated by men of the lowest castes. The author means to say that in such cases a Brāhmaṇa may take his share from the threshing-floor, where the whole produce of the village-land is stored, without hesitation.

[7]:

Vasiṣṭha XIV, 24; Manu V, 127.

[8]:

Vasiṣṭha III, 35-36.

[9]:

Vasiṣṭha III, 56.