CHAPTER XIII.

An Account of the Ceremony for all the Ancestors.

1. Garuda said: Tell pre, O Lord, about the method of [performing] the Sapinda rite. the removal of pollution, and the gift of accessories.

2. The Blessed Lord said: Listen, O Tarksya, and I will explain to you the entire Sapinda rite, by which the condition of preta is left behind and the soul enters the class of the pitris.

3-5. Those whose pindas have not been mixed together with the ancestors called S'iva and the rest, are not uplifted by the various gifts made by the sons.

If the son is always impure, they are never purified; without the Sapinda rite the impurity does not depart.

Therefore the Sapinda, at the end of the pollution period, should be performed by the son. I will tell you about the ending of pollution to be observed by all.

6-9. A Brahmin becomes pure in ten days, a Ksattriya in twelve days; a Vais'ya in fifteen days, a S'udra in a month.

The Sapinda relatives are purified from the death pollution in ten days; the Sakulya relatives in three nights, and the gotrajas are purified merely by bathing.

Those who are related within the fourth degree to the deceased are purified in ten nights, those in the fifth degree, in six nights; the sixth, four days; the seventh, three days;

The eighth, a single day; the ninth, a quarter of a day; the tenth, merely till bathing;--so long lasts the pollution of death and birth [according to the distance of degrees from the deceased].

10-11. If a person dies in a foreign land and one hears of his death, then the impurity lasts for the remaining portion of ten days on which he hears the news;

If after the lapse of ten days, he is polluted for three nights. If after a year, he becomes pure even by bathing.

12. If a second pollution comes daring that from the first death, then the purification from the first pollution includes that from the second.

13. If a boy who has not yet cut his teeth dies, purification is immediate; before tonsure, one night, it is said; before the investiture with the thread, three nights; and afterwards, ten nights.

14-16. If a girl dies between birth and tonsure, purification is immediate, in all the castes alike;

Up to betrothal a single day, and from that to old age three nights are authoritative;

If after the betrothal ceremony three days for both families, it should be understood; if after marriage, only the husband's family.

17-18. If the embryo dies before sixth month; in as many days the embryo lived months, purity is regained.

After this the women are polluted, according to the caste. If the embryo dies, purification of the Sapinda relatives is immediate.

19. During the Kali Age--it is authoritatively declared in the S'astras--ten days' purification for all the castes, after births and deaths.