I shall now, O chief of Bharata's race, tell you who are purifiers of the line. Do you find them out by examination. All those Brahmanas who are purified by knowledge, Vedic study, vows and observances and they who are of good and righteous conduct, should be known as purifiers of everything. I shall now tell you who deserve to sit in the line. You should know them to be such whom I shall mark out presently. He who is conversant with the three Nachiketas, he who has set up the five sacrificial fires, he who knows the five Suparnas, he who knows the six branches (called Angas) of the Veda, he who is a descendant of fathers who were engaged in teaching the Vedas and is himself engaged in teaching, he who is well conversant with the Prosody, he who is acquainted with the Jeshthya Saman, he who is obedient to his parents, he who is conversant with the Vedas, and whose ancestors have been so for ten generations, he who knows only his married wives and this at their seasons, and he who has been purified by knowledge, by the Veda, and by vows and observances, even such a Brahmana, purifies the line.
विद्यावेदव्रतस्नाता ब्राह्मणाः सर्व एव हि। सदाचारपराश्चैव विज्ञेयाः सर्वपावनाः॥ पातेयांस्तु प्रवक्ष्यामि ज्ञेयास्ते पतितपावनाः। त्रिणाचिकेत: पञ्चाग्निस्त्रिसुपर्णः षडङ्गवित्॥ ब्रह्मदेयानुसंतानश्छन्दोगो ज्येष्ठसामगः। मातापित्रोर्यश्च वश्यः श्रोत्रियो दशपूरुषः॥ ऋतुकालाभिगामी च धर्मपत्नीषु यः सदा। वेदविद्याव्रतस्नातो विप्रः पङ्क्तिं पुनात्युत॥