Verse 3.186

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

वेदार्थवित् प्रवक्ता च ब्रह्मचारी सहस्रदः ।
शतायुश्चैव विज्ञेया ब्राह्मणाः पङ्क्तिपावनाः ॥ १८६ ॥

vedārthavit pravaktā ca brahmacārī sahasradaḥ |
śatāyuścaiva vijñeyā brāhmaṇāḥ paṅktipāvanāḥ || 186 ||

He who understands the meaning of the Veda, he who expounds it, the Student, the giver of a thousand, the centenarian;—these Brāhmaṇas should be known as “Sanctifiers of Company.”—(186)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘He who understands the meaning of the Veda.’

“The knower of the ‘six-limbed science’ has already been mentioned.”

True; but the man meant here is one who himself, even without the help of the Subsidiary Sciences, finds out the meaning of the Veda, by his own intelligence. Or, the same person spoken of before may be taken as referred to again and again; the meaning being that in the absence of the knowledge of the meaning of the Veda, people are not deserving of being fed at Śrāddhas, even though they may have other qualifications.

‘One who expounds it’—i.e., the meaning of the Veda.

‘The, Student.’

‘The giver of a thousand;’—in the absence of mention of any particular thing, this should be taken to mean ‘one who has given away a thousand cows.’ But the right view appears to be that the term, ‘thousand,’ standing for much, the person meant is one who gives much, i.e., the extremely generous person; specially, as there is nothing definite to indicate that the number refers to cows. But the Veda having asserted that^‘cows are the mothers of sacrifice,’—where no particular thing is mentioned—cows should be understood to be meant.

‘The centenarian’—i.e., one who is of advanced age; such a person, having all his impurities cleared off, acquires the sanctifying character. The ‘centenarian’ is one whose life extends over a hundred years; the number being taken, on the basis of usage, as referring to years. Or, the term ‘hundred’ may be taken as standing for many, so that the word means ‘long-lived,’ ‘of advanced age.’

Gautama (15.10-11) has declared that ‘gifts should first be made to young men;—others say it is like the Father;’ and people have taken the term ‘Student’ of the present verse as conveying this same idea; the student being the person of ‘early age.’—(186)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 557), which explains ‘pravaktā’ as ‘the expounder of the meaning of the Veda’;—and ‘Sahasradaḥ’ as ‘one who gives a thousand cows’ (quoting Medhātithi as the propounder of this explanation),—and ‘śatāyuḥ’ as ‘one who has completed a full hundred years’.

‘Brahmacāri’ is explained by Nandana as ‘the chaste man’.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.184-186)

See Comparative notes for Verse 3.184.