Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi

by Ganganatha Jha | 1920 | 1,381,940 words | ISBN-10: 8120811550 | ISBN-13: 9788120811553

This is the English translation of the Manusmriti, which is a collection of Sanskrit verses dealing with ‘Dharma’, a collective name for human purpose, their duties and the law. Various topics will be dealt with, but this volume of the series includes 12 discourses (adhyaya). The commentary on this text by Medhatithi elaborately explains various t...

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

ध्रियमाणे तु पितरि पूर्वेषामेव निर्वपेत् ।
विप्रवद् वाऽपि तं श्राद्धे स्वकं पितरमाशयेत् ॥ २२० ॥

dhriyamāṇe tu pitari pūrveṣāmeva nirvapet |
vipravad vā'pi taṃ śrāddhe svakaṃ pitaramāśayet || 220 ||

While his father holds, one should make the offering to the previous ancestors; or, he may feed his own father at the Śrāddha as a Brāhmana.—(220).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

It has been said that ‘one shall offer balls to the Pitṛs.’ Now the question arises—Who are these ‘Pitṛs?’ The term ‘pitṛ’ has several meanings, and denotes ‘progenitor’; (A) it is used in the sense of the relative term, ‘father’; (B) it is also used in the sense of one’s father and other relations that have died before. It is in this latter sense that we have the term used in the plural in all such Nigada-mantras as ‘namo vaḥ pitaraḥ, &c.’. It is for the same reason, again, that at the Śrāddha offered to females, these mantras do not undergo transmutation into the form ‘namo vo mātaraḥ, &c.;’ on the same grounds, again, at the the Śrāddha offered to a single person, it is only the number that is changed, not the basic noun (pitṛ). Says the author of the Sutra also—‘Mantras should be transformed only in regard to the singular number;’ the transformed words being—‘namaste pitaḥ.’ Similarly, he who performs the unitary Śrāddha of his brother or grandfather, uses the mantra in the form ‘namaste bhrātaḥ,’ ‘namaste pitāmaha,’ ‘namaste pitṛvya,’ and so forth. The offering of Śrāddha to one’s childless uncle has been enjoined as necessary, in such passages as—‘what one receives from another that he shall give unto him.’ (C) Further, the term ‘pitṛ’ also denotes a particular Deity; and in this sense, it would stand for an unchanging eternal being. In fact, the author of the Nirukta, in the Daivata Section of the work, gives the name ‘Pitṛ,’ to the divine Beings occupying the Middle Regions, describing them as ‘Pitṛs, the Maruts bearing the rosary of beads.’

The term ‘pitṛ,’ thus having several meanings, the Text proceeds to specify what is meant by it in the present context.

While his father holds,’—is alive—‘one should make the offering to the previous ancestors,’—‘i.e., to the three, the grandfather, the great-grandfather and the father of the latter; that these three are meant is indicated by the plural number. Says the Gṛhyasūtra—‘The son should offer to those to whom the father offers, if both father and son are persons who have set up the fire.’

“But they say that the ball does not reach the fourth ancestor.”

True; but, in the case in question, no fourth ball is offered.

The text provides another alternative course to be adopted—‘As a Brāhmaṇa, etc.’ That is, Brāhmaṇas, Religious Students and Ascetics are invited and honoured and worship-pod and fed; and exactly in the same manner should the father be honoured and fed by one whose father is still alive ‘at the Śrāddha,’—i.e., the food cooked for the Śrāddha offerings.

In this case, the fact of the man being his father, is the sole ground for his being fed; hence it is not necessary to look into his caste and qualifications. To this end they declare thus:—‘The Śrāddha is for the purpose of giving pleasure to one’s ancestors’;—hence the bringing about of the pleasure of the dead father being necessary, what harm would there be in feeding the living father, in view of which he could not be fed?

Own’—Is merely reiterative; what is denoted by this being already connoted by the relative term, ‘father,’ itself.

What is laid down here is the actual feeding of the Father; but the Balls are placed for the Pitṛs on Kuśa blades; as otherwise, there would be an incompatibility with the formula ‘this ball is for you.’ If the Kusba-blades be regarded as substitutes for the Dish, then, in the event of the living Father’s possession being brought about (by the act of offering), it would not be right to make him eat ‘a very small portion;’ because, for the living person, the eating is to be in accordance with the eater’s desire. Further, in this case, there would be no need of pouring water and other things over the ball offered; as such a process would lead to the undesirable contingency of a ‘hybrid performance;’ any effect produced by the pouring of water, in this case, would serve no useful purpose, cither for the man himself or for his father; so that it could only serve an imperceptible transcendental purpose; on the other hand, if water were not poured over the ball, it might be fit for being eaten either by the father, or by the offerer himself, or by some one else. It is in this way that the act may turn out to be of a ‘hybrid’ character.

For these reasons, it follows that, in this alternative, the ball is to be offered to only two persons, the grandfather and the great-grandfather.

The authors of the Gṛhyasūtras, however, declare that—‘for one whose father is alive there is neiher Piṇḍapitṛyajña, nor Śrāddha;—there is either non-performance of these rites, or their performance only up to the stage of pouring libations into fire.’—(220)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 542), which explains ‘pūrveṣām’ as ‘the three beginning with the grandfather’. Hopkins is not right when he says that “in this case he offers of course only two Balls.”

The first half is quoted in Nirṇayasindhu (p. 361), in support of the view that the Ball should be offered to the Father’s father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

The verse is quoted in Śrāddhakriyākaumudī (p. 553), which has the following notes;—‘Pūrveṣām,’ the father’s forefathers; another alternative is that the living Father should be respectfully fed and then Śrāddha offered to the next two ancestors, i.e., the grandfather and the greatgrandfather.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Viṣṇu (75.1).—‘If one performs the Śrāddha while his father is alive, he shall offer it to those whom his father offers it.’

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: