Sacred Laws of Aryas

SR No.: 007687
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Gorge Buhler
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1897
Total Pages: 1979
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 36 MB

Page 252

II, 1.
UNINITIATED PERSONS.
185
60. (In case the same event happens) with other (animals, the pupil) must thrice restrain his breath and eat clarified butter,
61. And (the same expiation must be performed), if (unwittingly) a lesson in the Veda has been given on the site of a burial-ground.
CHAPTER II.
1. Before initiation (a child) may follow its inclinations in behaviour, speech, and eating. (It shall) not partake of offerings. (It shall remain) chaste. It may void urine and fæces according to its convenience.
60. This penance must be performed by the pupil, not by the teacher. Others declare that both shall perform it.'—Haradatta.
61. See also Âpastamba I, 3, 9, 6–8. The last clauses of this and all succeeding chapters are repeated in order to indicate that the chapter is finished.
II. 1. In concluding the explanation of this Sûtra, Haradatta states that its last clause is intended to give an instance of the freedom of behaviour permitted to a child. In his opinion Gautama indicates thereby that a person who, before initiation, drinks spirituous liquor, commits murder or other mortal sins, becomes an outcast, and is liable to perform the penances prescribed for initiated sinners. In support of this view he quotes a passage, taken from an unnamed Smriti, according to which the parents or other relatives of children between five and eleven years are to perform penances vicariously for the latter, while children between eleven and fifteen years are declared to be liable to half the penances prescribed for initiated adults. Hence he infers that though the above text of Gautama speaks of uninitiated persons in general, its provisions really apply to children under five years of age only. Though it would seem that some of Gautama's rules refer to half-grown persons rather than to infants or very young boys, it is impossible to assume that Gautama meant to give full licence of behaviour, speech, and eating to Brâhmanas who were not
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