Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 31, Shloka 26
Adhyaya 31 — Naimittika and Related Śrāddha Rites: Sapiṇḍīkaraṇa, Eligibility, Timing, and Procedure
अवकीर्णो तथा रोगी न्यूनॆ चाङ्गे तथाधिके ।
पौनर्भवस्तथा काणः कुण्डो गोलो 'थ पुत्रक ॥
avakīrṇo tathā rogī nyūne cāṅge tathādhike /
paunarbhavas tathā kāṇaḥ kuṇḍo golo 'tha putraka
One who has violated brahmacarya (avakīrṇa), one who is sick, one with a limb deficient or excessive, a remarried person (paunarbhava), a one-eyed man, and one with goitre (kuṇḍa) or other severe deformity (gola)—O son—are not suitable at śrāddha.
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FAQs
The text reflects classical ritual-purity frameworks where bodily condition and perceived conduct affect eligibility. Ethically, it shows how ritual systems historically encoded social boundaries—important for understanding tradition, even where modern practice may reinterpret or reject such exclusions.
Ācāra (ritual regulation), not pancalakṣaṇa.
Ritual theory often equates ‘wholeness’ and ‘health’ with unobstructed prāṇic flow; exclusions symbolize the desire for an unbroken conduit for offerings—though this is a symbolic logic, not a metaphysical judgment on personal worth.