Verse 3.116

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

भुक्तवत्स्वथ विप्रेषु स्वेषु भृत्येषु चैव हि ।
भुञ्जीयातां ततः पश्चादवशिष्टं तु दम्पती ॥ ११६ ॥

bhuktavatsvatha vipreṣu sveṣu bhṛtyeṣu caiva hi |
bhuñjīyātāṃ tataḥ paścādavaśiṣṭaṃ tu dampatī || 116 ||

After the Brāhmaṇas, his own people and servants have dined,—the husband and wife should afterwards eat what is left.—(116)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Brāhmaṇas’—i.e., guests.

‘His men people’—people of the same caste, and so forth. When all these have eaten, then ‘what is left by them,’ the husband and wife should eat.

‘Afterwards’—this is added with a view to perclude the notion that a portion of the food having been assigned to the guests and others, and kept aside, the remainder might be called ‘what is left,’ and as such might be eaten by the householder and his wife, even before the guests, &c.

Half of this verse is meant to be the injunction of the time for the husband and wife to eat; the rest of it is a purely descriptive reference.—(116)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 364), as laying down the manner in which the Householder himself should take his food;—and in Vīramitrodaya (Āhnika, p. 456) without comment.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Viṣṇu (67.41).—[Reproduces Manu.]

Āpastamba-Dharmasūtra (2.8.2).—‘He shall eat what has been left by the guests.’

Yājñavalkya (1.105).—‘The husband and wife shall eat what is left after the guests and dependents have been fed.’

Paraskara (3.9.14).—‘The householder and his wife, after all the rest.’