Verse 3.103

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

नैकग्रामीणमतिथिं विप्रं साङ्गतिकं तथा ।
उपस्थितं गृहे विद्याद् भार्या यत्राग्नयोऽपि वा ॥ १०३ ॥

naikagrāmīṇamatithiṃ vipraṃ sāṅgatikaṃ tathā |
upasthitaṃ gṛhe vidyād bhāryā yatrāgnayo'pi vā || 103 ||

One should not regard as “guest” a Brāhmaṇa who lives in the same village or who is a companion. He should regard him as such when he arrives at his house, or where the wife and the fires are at the time.—(103)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

One who fives in the same village is not a ‘guest,’ even though he may happen to come just at the time of the ‘Vaiśvadeva’ offerings.

‘Companion’—a fellow-student, other than one’s ‘friend;’ the rule regarding the entertaining of the latter will come later—‘the Vaiśya and the Śūdra and one’s friend, &c., &c.’ (Verse 110).

It appears right to take the term ‘sāṅgatika’ as excluding the man who is in the habit of meeting all men on terms of equality, entertaining them with jokes ami stories,—oven though he be such as has never been met before.

For the Householder, when away from home, no one can be a ‘guest,’ even though he may fulfil all the conditions of one; one is to be regarded as such only when he ‘arrives at one’s house;’ i.e., to the place where one lives permanently, that which is called his ‘abode.’ But even when the man is away from home, if his wife and Fires happen to be there, then the Brāhmaṇa arriving will be his ‘guest,’ even though he himself may not be there. Hence the householder should provide for the entertaining of guests during his absence, in the same manner as he does for the maintenance of the Fires and the performance of the Darśa-Pūrṇmāsa and other periodical sacrifices.

The term ‘or’ implies that (a) when the man goes on a journey taking his wife and the fires with him, then, even during his stay in another village, if some one arrives, he should be treated as a ‘guest;”—(b) that the same is the case at his own house, during his absence, if his wife and Fires are there that hence, when one goes out with his wife, but leaves the Fires at home, the rule regarding the entertaining of guests does not apply.

The term ‘or’ is to be construed with ‘should regard’ not as between the ‘wife’ and the ‘fires.’—(103)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Sāṅgatikam’—‘Fellow-student, other than a friend; or one who is in the habit of meeting all men on terms of equality, entertaining, them with jokes and stories.’ [Medhātithi; whom Buhler quotes wrongly by including ‘the Vaiśya or a Śūdra or a friend’ in the latter explanation; the word ‘vaiśyaśūdrau sahhā cheti’ stands for verse 110, where, Medhātithi says, ‘the rule regarding the entertaining of a Friend will come in’];—‘One who makes a living by telling wonderful or laughable stories and the like’ (Govindarāja, Kullūka and Rāghavānanda);—‘one who comes on account of his relationship to the Householder’ (Nārāyaṇa).

‘Bhāryā yatrāgnayaḥ’—‘Where the wife and the fires are at the time’ (Medhātithi);—‘when the man who has arrived is accompanied by his Wife and Fires’ (Govindarāja and Nārāyaṇa). Buhler is again in the wrong in translating Kullūka’s view. What Kullūka says is “etena bhāryāgnirahitasya pravāsino nātithitvamiti bodhitam”—i.e., ‘what is meant is that the character of a guest does not belong to that wanderer from home, who is devoid of wife and fires’; and not (as Buhler puts it) that ‘a Householder who has neither (wife or fires) need not entertain guests.’

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 353), which adds the following notes:—An inhabitant of the same village, even though he may arrive in the character of a guest, is not to be entertained as such;—similarly, the ‘Sāṅgatika,’ i.e., ‘an old acquaintance,’—is not to be treated as a guest, if he happens to arrive as one;—an arrival is to be treated as a guest only when he comes to the house—either his own or some one else’s—where the Householder’s ‘wife and fires’ happen to be at the time.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.102-103)

See Comparative notes for Verse 3.102.