Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi
by Ganganatha Jha | 1920 | 1,381,940 words | ISBN-10: 8120811550 | ISBN-13: 9788120811553
This is the English translation of the Manusmriti, which is a collection of Sanskrit verses dealing with ‘Dharma’, a collective name for human purpose, their duties and the law. Various topics will be dealt with, but this volume of the series includes 12 discourses (adhyaya). The commentary on this text by Medhatithi elaborately explains various t...
Verse 2.181
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
स्वप्ने सिक्त्वा ब्रह्मचारी द्विजः शुक्रमकामतः ।
स्नात्वाऽर्कमर्चयित्वा त्रिः पुनर्मामित्यृचं जपेत् ॥ १८१ ॥svapne siktvā brahmacārī dvijaḥ śukramakāmataḥ |
snātvā'rkamarcayitvā triḥ punarmāmityṛcaṃ japet || 181 ||The twice-born religious student, haying unintentionally dropped his manhood during a dream, should thrice recite the three vedic verses beginning with “punarmām,” after having bathed and worshipped the sun.—(181)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
When one renounces his vow of continence intentionally, then he has to perform the expiatory rite prescribed for the ‘Avakīrṇī’ (11.120 et. seq.); the present verse lays down what one should do when he does it unintentionally.
No significance attaches to the mention of ‘dream’; the absence of intention is the only necessary condition; and no intention can be present during dreams. Hence this same expiatory rite is to be performed in a case where, even though he may be not asleep, the flow occurs involuntarily, in the same manner as certain other fluids flow out of the body.
The sense of the verse thus is that—‘if one drops his manhood unintentionally, he should perform this expiatory rite that he should recite the three verses, etc., etc.—(181)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
‘Punarmām’—“This verse occurs in Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 1. 30,”—Buhler.
Punarmāmaitvindriyam—Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 1. 30. Such uses of texts are frequent in the later Vedic works; e.g. the Sāmavidhāna Brāhmaṇa and the several Ṛgvidhānas,”—Burnell.
This verse is quoted in Parāśatramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 394), as laying down what should be done by the Religious Student, in the event of a ‘wet dream—in Madanapārijāta (p. 39);—in Aparārka (p. 1141);—in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 127) as showing that unintentional emission involves only an expiation;—and in Prāyoscittaviveka (p. 462).
Comparative notes by various authors
Yama (Aparārka, 11.41).—‘The Religious Student involuntarily emitting semen during a dream shall bathe, look at the Sun and repeat the Gāyatrī a hundred and eight times.’
Viṣṇu (28.53)—(reproduces Manu’s words).