making his
round of mendicancy with a human skull in one hand and a khattanga in
another, by becoming a Brahmacharin and always ready for exertion, by
casting off all malice, by sleeping on the bare ground, by publishing his
offence to the world, by doing all this for full twelve years, a person
can cleanse himself from the sin of having slain a Brahmana. By perishing
upon the weapon of a person living by the use of arms, of one's own will
and upon the advice of persons learned in the scriptures, or by throwing
one's self down, for three times, with head downwards, upon a blazing
fire, or by walking a hundred Yojanas all the while reciting the Vedas,
or by giving away one's whole property to a Brahmana conversant with the
Vedas, or at least so much as would secure to him a competence for life,
or a house properly furnished, and by protecting kine and Brahmanas, one
may be cleansed of the sin of having slain a Brahmana. By living upon the
scantiest meal every day for a space of six years, a person may be
cleansed of that sin.[115] By observing a harder vow with regard to food
one may be cleansed in three years.[116] By living upon one meal a month,
one may be cleansed in course of only a year. By observing, again, an
absolute fast, one may be cleansed within a very short time. There is no
doubt again that one is cleansed by a Horse-sacrifice. Men that have
been guilty of having slain a Brahmana and that have succeeded in taking
the final bath at the completion of the Horse-sacrifice, become cleansed
of all their sins. This is an injunction of great authority in the
Srutis. One again, by slaying down his life in a battle undertaken for
the sake of a Brahmana, becomes cleansed of the sin of having slain a
Brahmana. By giving away a hundred thousand kine unto persons deserving
of gifts, one becomes cleansed of the sin of having slain a Brahmana as
also, indeed, of all his sins. One that gives away five and twenty
thousand kine of the Kapila species and while all of them have calved,
becomes cleansed of all his sins. One who, at the point of death, gives
away a thousand kine with calves unto poor but deserving persons, becomes
freed from sin. That man, O king, who gives away a hundred steeds of the
Kamvoja breed unto Brahmanas of regulated behaviour, becomes freed from
sin. That man. O Bharata, who gives unto even one person all that he asks
for, and who, having given it, does not speak of his act to any one,
becomes freed fr