Verse 3.184

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

अग्र्याः सर्वेषु वेदेषु सर्वप्रवचनेषु च ।
श्रोत्रियान्वयजाश्चैव विज्ञेयाः पङ्क्तिपावनाः ॥ १८४ ॥

agryāḥ sarveṣu vedeṣu sarvapravacaneṣu ca |
śrotriyānvayajāścaiva vijñeyāḥ paṅktipāvanāḥ || 184 ||

Those persons should be known as “sanctifiers of company” who are foremost in all the vedas and in all the explanatory sciences, and who are born in the family of men learned in the veda.—(184)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Foremost’—most excellent; who have carefully made the Vedas their own by having all doubts regarding them set aside.

‘Foremost also in all the explanatory sciences’—i.e., the subsidiary sciences which serve to explain what is contained in the Veda. That is, those persons, who have learnt, and are learning, the Veda along with the six subsidiary sciences.

‘Those who are born in the family of men learned in the Veda’—i.e., those whose father and grandfather, etc., are also equally learned in the Veda and the subsidiary sciences.

“It is persons such as these that have been mentioned as fit for being fed; what further excellence is here mentioned, by virtue of which these men are described as ‘sanctifiers of company?’”

It has been laid down above that food should be given to one possessed of even slight knowledge, only if he happens to be learned in the Veda. In the present instance, however, mere learning is not mentioned as the only condition of being a ‘Sanctifier of Company.’ In fact, this latter character of being a ‘Sanctifier of Company’ is dependent upon the presence of special qualifications; and hence it cannot be right to accept it in cases of lower qualifications. Thus the present verse is meant to sanction the giving of food to one who is simply learning the Veda, in the absence of fully learned persons. So that, in the absence of the fully learned man, the giving of food to one who is learning the Veda is the first course to be adopted, and not merely a secondary one.

The plural number is used, in view of the individual men.

The particle ‘ca’ has the cumulative sense.—(184)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 557), which adds the following explanations:—‘Sarvavedeṣu’ means ‘of all the Vedas,—or even of a single Veda’;—‘agryāḥ’—‘foremost among the teachers’;—‘Sarvopravacaneṣu’—‘in the expounding of the meaning of the Veda’;—‘Śrotriyānvayajāḥ,—‘born in the family of men devoted to the study of the Veda’;—and in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Śrāddha, p. 8a).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.184-186)

Mahābhārata (13.90, 26, 27, 37).—‘The Triṇāciketa, the tender of the five fires, the Trisuparṇa, the man versed in the six subsidiary sciences, the man born of the Brāhma form of marriage, the Chandoga, the singer of the Jyeṣṭha-Sāma; those foremost in all the Vedas and in all the expositions.’

Gautama (15.9, 28).—‘Vedic scholars, endowed with beauty, age and character; the knower of the six subsidiary sciences, the singer of the Jyeṣṭha-sāma, the Triṇāciketa, the Trimadhu, the Trisuparṇa, the tender of the five fires, the Accomplished Student, one versed in Mantras and Brāhmaṇas, one who is conversant with Dharma, one born of the Brāhma form of marriage:—these are the sanctifiers of company.’

Āpastamba Dharmasūtra (2, 17, 22).—‘The Trimadhu, the Trisuparṇa, the Triṇāciketa, the Chaturmadhu, the tender of the five fires, the singer of the Jyeṣṭha-sāma, the reader of the Veda, the son of a Vedic expounder, the Vedic scholar;—these are the sanctifiers of company.’

Viṣṇu (8.3.2, 5, 11).—‘The Triṇāciketa, the singer of the Jyeṣṭha-sāma, the son born of the Brāhma form of marriage, the Trisuparṇa; one who has read through the Veda, one purified by austerities; specially the Yogins.’

Yājñavalkya (1, 219.221).—‘Those foremost in all the Vedas, the Vedic Scholar, the youthful Knower of Brahman, one who knows the meaning of the Veda, the singer of the Jyeṣṭhasāman, the Trimadhu, the Trīṣuparṇa; those firm in their duties, those firm in austerities, the tender of the five fires, Religious Students, those devoted to their father and mother; such Brāhmaṇas constitute the glory of the Śrāddha.’

Baudhāyana (2, 8).—‘The Trimadhu, the Triṇāciketa, the Trisuparṇa, the tender of the five fires, one who knows the six subsidiary sciences, the Śīrṣaka, one who sings the Jyeṣṭhasāman, the Accomplished Student; these are the sanctifiers of company.’

Bṛhad-Yama (3, 43).—‘One conversant with the Vedanta, one who sings the Jyeṣṭhasāman, one who is free from avarice, one who is devoted to the Veda;—such a Brāhmaṇa should be employed at the rites in honour of Gods and Pitṛs.’