Verse 4.53

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

नाग्निं मुखेनोपधमेन्नग्नां नैक्षेत च स्त्रियम् ।
नामेध्यं प्रक्षिपेदग्नौ न च पादौ प्रतापयेत् ॥ ५३ ॥

nāgniṃ mukhenopadhamennagnāṃ naikṣeta ca striyam |
nāmedhyaṃ prakṣipedagnau na ca pādau pratāpayet || 53 ||

He shall not blow fire with the mouth; nor shall he look at a naked woman. He shall not throw an unclean thing into fire; nor shall he warm his feet at it.—(53)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Fire should be blown with deer-skin-fans and such things.

‘He shall not look at a naked woman’—‘apart from sexual intercourse,’ says another Smṛti-text.

‘Unclean thing’—‘ameḍhya—‘medha’ means- sacrifice; ‘medhya’ is fit for use at sacrifice; and ‘amedhya’ is unfit for use at sacrifices; such things, for instance, as onions, urine, excreta, and so forth. Anything like this, he shall not throw into fire.

He shall not raise his feet directly towards the fire and warm them at it. There is no objection to the feet being covered and then warmed for the purpose of exciting perspiration.—(53).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 181);—and in Mitākṣarā (on 1.137).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gautama (9.33).—‘Blowing fire with the mouth, wrangling, obtrusive wearing of garlands and sandal-paste, eating with his wife, looking at the wife applying collyrium to her eyes, entering by the wrong door, eating while seated on the chair, swimming in the river, climbing trees,—these he shall avoid.’

Āpastamba Dharmasūtra (15.20).—‘He shall not blow (the fire, carelessly).’

Do. (30.20).—‘He shall not stretch his legs towards fire, water, Brahmaṇas, Deities, wind.’

Vaśiṣṭha (12.27).—‘He shall not blow the fire with his mouth.’

Viṣṇu (72.26.37).—‘He shall not look at the naked woman,—he shall not throw any unclean object into the fire,—he shall not warm his feet over the fire.’

Do. (Aparārka, p. 182).—‘Blood or poison he shall not throw into the fire.’

Yājñavalkya (1.135).—‘He shall not look at the sun, nor at the naked woman, nor at the woman immediately after intercourse, nor at the urine or at the stool, nor at unclean things, nor at the eclipse or at the stars.’

Yajñavalkya (1.137).—‘He shall not throw into the water spittings or blood, or ordure or urine or semen; he shall not warm his feet over the fire; nor shall he cross over it.’

Āśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra (3.9.6).—‘He shall not bathe at night; he shall not bathe naked; he shall not sleep naked; he shall not look at ṭhe naked woman, except...... he shall not run in the rain.’

Yama (Aparārka, p. 181).—‘The worshipping tree one shall not cut; nor throw phlegm, semen, poison, urine, ordure, blood, bones, ashes, potsherds, hair or thorns into water.’

Kātyāyana (Do.).—‘Either before or after the offering of oblations one shall not blow the fire with the hand, or with the winnowing basket or with the sphya or fans. He shall blow the fire with the mouth alone, as from the mouth was fire born; the prohibition of blowing fire with the mouth is applied to the ordinary (not sacrificial) fire.’

Devala (Do.).—‘One shall not throw fire into the fire, nor quench it with water.’