Verse 3.177

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

वीक्ष्यान्धो नवतेः काणः षष्टेः श्वित्री शतस्य तु ।
पापरोगी सहस्रस्य दातुर्नाशयते फलम् ॥ १७७ ॥

vīkṣyāndho navateḥ kāṇaḥ ṣaṣṭeḥ śvitrī śatasya tu |
pāparogī sahasrasya dāturnāśayate phalam || 177 ||

The blind man, by looking, destroys the feeder’s reward for feeding ninety men, the one-eyed man of sixty, the leper of one hundred, and the man afflicted with a foul disease of a thousand.—(177)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

“How can there be any looking by the blind man;—by virtue of which the text says ‘the blind man by looking, etc.’?”

True; what is meant is only his proximity to the place. The meaning is that, in an uncovered place, the blind man should be removed away from such distance from which the man with eyes could see.

‘The one-eyed man of sixty;’—this does not mean that if the number is more than these, they may be fed (even in the presence of the blind, etc.). All that the reducing of the number means is that the delinquency would be less serious, and hence the expiatory rite to be performed would be on a smaller scale.

It is the leper that is called ‘śvitrī.’

‘The man suffering from a foul disease’—is well known,—(177)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

“Regarding the diseases which are punishments for sins committed in a former life, see below, 11.49 et. seq.”—Buhler.

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 454), which adds that what is meant is that ‘if a blind man remains in a place from where a man with eyes could see the Brāhmaṇas eating,—then he destroys the merit that would result from the feeding of ninety men’;—and in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 499).