oblations on
the fire, reciting the Savitri hymn. In accepting sesamum, O
Yudhishthira, the same expiation has to be made. In accepting meat, or
honey, or salt, a Brahmana becomes purified by standing till the rising
of the sun. If a Brahmana accepts gold from any one, he becomes cleansed
of all sins by silently reciting the great Vedic prayer (Gayatri) and by
holding a piece of iron in his hand in the presence of the public. In
accepting money or clothes or women or gold, the purification is the same
as before. In accepting food, or rice boiled in milk and sugar, or
sugarcane juice, or sugar-cane, or oil, or any sacred thing, one becomes
purified by bathing thrice in the course of the day, viz., at morn, noon
and eve. If one accepts paddy, flowers, fruits, water, half-ripe barley,
milk, or curdled milk, or anything made of meal or flour, the expiation
is made by reciting the Gayatri prayer a hundred times. In accepting
shoes or clothes at obsequial ceremonies, the sin is destroyed by
reciting devoutly the same hymn a hundred times. The acceptance of the
gift of land at the time of an eclipse or during the period of impurity,
is expiated by observing a fast during three successive nights. The
Brahmana who partakes of oblations offered to deceased ancestors, in
course of the dark fortnight, is purified by fasting for a whole day and
night. Without performing his ablutions a Brahmana should not say his
evening prayers, nor betake himself to religious meditation, nor take his
food a second time. By so doing he is purified. For this reason, the
Sraddha of deceased ancestors has been ordained to be performed in the
afternoon and then the Brahmana who has been invited beforehand should be
feasted. The Brahmana who partakes of food at the house of a dead person
on the third day after the death, is purified by bathing three times
daily for twelve days. After the expiration of twelve days, and going
through the purification ceremonies duly, the sin is destroyed by giving
clarified butter to Brahmanas. If a man takes any food in the house of a
dead person, within ten days after the death, he should go through all
the expiations before mentioned, and should recite the Savitri hymn and
do the sin-destroying Ishti and Kushmanda penances. The Brahmana who
takes his food in the house of a dead person for three nights, becomes
purified by performing his ablutions thrice daily for seven days, and
thus attains all the objects of his desire