Verse 2.212

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

गुरुपत्नी तु युवतिर्नाभिवाद्यैह पादयोः ।
पूर्णविंशतिवर्षेण गुणदोषौ विजानता ॥ २१२ ॥

gurupatnī tu yuvatirnābhivādyaiha pādayoḥ |
pūrṇaviṃśativarṣeṇa guṇadoṣau vijānatā || 212 ||

The teacher’s wife, when young, shall not be saluted at her feet by a pupil who is full twenty years old, and who is conscious of what is good and what is bad.—(212)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘One who is full twenty years old’;—i.e., fully grown up. There is no harm in the case of the pupil who is still a ‘child,’ not having passed his sixteenth year. What is meant is one who has completed his twenty years. To the same effect we have the next qualification—‘who is conscious of what is good and what is bad.’ The ‘good’ and ‘bad’ meant here are the pleasures and pains arising from sexual love, also the beauty and ugliness of women, as also their fidelity and infidelity.

In any case stress is not meant to be laid upon the number ‘twenty.’—(212)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 462), where it is explained that the term ‘purṇaviṃśativarṣeṇa’ stands for full youth, and stress is not meant to be laid upon the precise age mentioned;—also in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 301);—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 104).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Viṣṇu (32, 13).—(Reproduces Manu.)

Gautama (2. 39).—‘Feet-washing and feet-clasping shall not be done for the teacher’s wife.’

Baudhāyana (1. 2. 34).—‘One who has become an adult shall not salute (by feet-clasping) the youthful sister-in-law or the youthful wife of the teacher.’