Verse 4.111

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

यावदेकानुदिष्टस्य गन्धो लेपश्च तिष्ठति ।
विप्रस्य विदुषो देहे तावद् ब्रह्म न कीर्तयेत् ॥ १११ ॥

yāvadekānudiṣṭasya gandho lepaśca tiṣṭhati |
viprasya viduṣo dehe tāvad brahma na kīrtayet || 111 ||

While the odour and stain of a funeral rite not offered to his own ancestor remain upon the body of a learned Brāhmaṇa, he shall not recite the Veda.—(111)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘That which is not offered to his own ancestor;’—i.e., that at which uncooked food is offered;—while of such a rite the ‘odour and stain remain,’ so long he is unfit for study. This is a rule different from the forgoing rule. When on the next day, the man has bathed, and the odour has disappeared, he becomes fit for study.

What is said here is only by way of an iṇḍicatipn. Even while the ‘odour and stain’ are not actually there, the man shall hot study, until the food eaten has become digested.

The epithet ‘learned’ reiterates the rule that it is only the learned Brāhmaṇa that is entitled to eat at funeral rites.—(111).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 190), where ‘ekānudiṣṭa’ is explained as the ‘Ekoddiṣṭa Śrāddha’;—in Hemādri (Kāla, p. 756), which explains ‘gandha’ etc. as ‘the odour of the sandal-paint and the incense’;—and in Gadādharapaddhati (Kāla, p. 195).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Āpastamba Dharmasūtra (1.10.28).—‘On eating food that has been offered to the dead, the day along with the night becomes unfit for study.’

Āpastamba Dharmasūtra (1.11.25-26).—‘They forbid even mental study, etc. (see under 109). According to some only on eating at Śrāddha.’