Chapter 54

Vishnu Smriti 54

Whatever sinner is associated with another, he shall perform the penance of that other. // Vi_54.1 //

A Brāhmaṇa who has drunk water from a well in which a five-toed animal has died, or which is extremely defiled, shall fast for three nights. // Vi_54.2 //

A Rājanya, for two days. // Vi_54.3 //

A Vaiśya, for one day. // Vi_54.4 //

A Śūdra, at night. // Vi_54.5 //

And at the end of the vow, all shall drink pañcagavya. // Vi_54.6 //

A Śūdra who drinks pañcagavya, and a Brāhmaṇa who drinks liquor, / Both of them go to the hell called Mahāraurava. || Vi_54.7 ||

He who approaches his wife during her fertile period, except on festival days or when she is ill, shall fast for three nights. // Vi_54.8 //

A false witness shall perform the vow for killing a Brāhmaṇa. // Vi_54.9 //

For urinating or defecating in a place without water, a bath with one's clothes on and an oblation with the great sacred utterances. // Vi_54.10 //

He upon whom the sun rises while he is sleeping, having bathed with his clothes on, shall repeat the Sāvitrī mantra one hundred and eight times. // Vi_54.11 //

One who is bitten by a dog, a jackal, a pig, a donkey, a monkey, a crow, or an unchaste woman, having gone to a river, shall perform sixteen breath-controls. // Vi_54.12 //

One who abandons the Veda and the sacred fire, bathing at the three junctures of the day, sleeping on the ground, shall subsist on alms once a day for a year. // Vi_54.13 //

For speaking an untruth in self-praise, for obstinately lying to a teacher, and for insulting him, he shall subsist on milk for a month. // Vi_54.14 //

An atheist, one who lives as an atheist, an ungrateful person, a fraudulent trader, and one who destroys a Brāhmaṇa's livelihood—these shall subsist on alms for a year. // Vi_54.15 //

A younger brother who marries before his elder, the elder brother who is thus superseded, the woman with whom he marries, the giver, and the priest shall perform the cāndrāyaṇa penance. // Vi_54.16 //

A seller of living beings, land, sacred merit, or Soma shall perform the taptakṛcchra penance. // Vi_54.17 //

A seller of fresh herbs, perfumes, flowers, roots, leather, cane, wickerwork, husks, earthenware, hair, ashes, bones, cow's products, oil-cake, sesame, or oil shall perform the prājāpatya penance. // Vi_54.18 //

A seller of lac, resin, honey-wax, conch-shells, mother-of-pearl, tin, lead, black iron, or vessels of Udumbara wood or rhinoceros horn shall perform the cāndrāyaṇa penance. // Vi_54.19 //

A seller of red clothes, dyes, gems, perfumes, molasses, sweet juices, or wool shall fast for three nights. // Vi_54.20 //

A seller of meat, salt, lac, or milk shall perform the cāndrāyaṇa penance. // Vi_54.21 //

And he shall be initiated again. // Vi_54.22 //

Having traveled by camel or donkey, having bathed naked, having slept, or having eaten, he shall perform three breath-controls. // Vi_54.23 //

Having muttered the Sāvitrī mantra three thousand times with a concentrated mind, / And having drunk milk in a cow-pen for a month, one is freed from accepting a forbidden gift. || Vi_54.24 ||

Having sacrificed for one for whom it is forbidden to sacrifice, and having performed the last rites for others, / And having performed black magic and a forbidden sacrifice, one removes the sin with three kṛcchra penances. || Vi_54.25 ||

Those twice-born men for whom the Sāvitrī has not been taught according to rule, / Having made them perform three kṛcchra penances, one should initiate them according to rule. || Vi_54.26 ||

Those twice-born men who, being engaged in forbidden acts, wish to perform a penance, / And who are forsaken by their Brāhmaṇa status, for them also one should prescribe this. || Vi_54.27 ||

The wealth which Brāhmaṇas acquire by a censured act, / They are purified by giving it up, and also by muttering prayers and by austerity. || Vi_54.28 ||

For the transgression of the eternal duties prescribed by the Veda, / And for the violation of the vows of a Vedic graduate, the penance is fasting. || Vi_54.29 ||

For threatening with a weapon, one shall perform a kṛcchra penance; for striking, an atikṛcchra; / For causing a Brāhmaṇa to bleed, he shall perform the kṛcchrātikṛcchra penance.[^9] || Vi_54.30 ||

With sinners who have been purified, one shall not have any dealings; / A knower of dharma shall not despise them after they have performed their purification. || Vi_54.31 ||

Slayers of children and the ungrateful, even if purified according to dharma, / And slayers of one who has sought refuge, and slayers of women—one shall not live with them. || Vi_54.32 ||

He who is eighty years old, or a child under sixteen, / Women, and the sick deserve half a penance. || Vi_54.33 ||

For the removal of sins for which no expiation has been mentioned, / Having considered the ability and the sin, one should devise a penance. || Vi_54.34 ||