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:

न स्नानमाचरेद् भुक्त्वा नातुरो न महानिशि ।
न वासोभिः सहाजस्रं नाविज्ञाते जलाशये ॥ १२९ ॥

na snānamācared bhuktvā nāturo na mahāniśi |
na vāsobhiḥ sahājasraṃ nāvijñāte jalāśaye || 129 ||

He shall not bathe after a meal, nor when he is ill, nor at midnight, nor along with his garments; and never in an unknown water-reservoir.—(129)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This prohibition does not apply to the daily bath; since there is no possibility of its ever being done after the meals; specially, as in another Smṛti-text, the order of sequence has been distinctly laid down as—‘(1) Bath, (2) the Great Sacrifices and (3) the Eating of Remnants.’ Nor can the prohibition apply to the bath necessitated by touching of the Cāṇḍāla and such other circumstances; because such a prohibition would be contrary to the general law that ‘one shall not remain impure for a single moment.’ From all this it follows that the prohibition applies to that purely voluntary bathing which one has recourse to for the relieving of heat and perspiration, etc.

Ill’—suffering from some disease. For the sick person, all kinds of bath have been forbidden, even when he may have become unclean; specially in view of the direction that ‘one shall protect himself from all things.’

Question—“How would such a man be purified?”

Answer— He shall sprinkle water over his body, or wipe off his body with Mantras, or change his clothes, and so forth.

Midnight,’ ‘Mahāniśā;’—i.e., Four ‘muhūrtas,’ two on each side of midnight.

Some people explain the term ‘mahāniśā’ as ‘Long Night,’ such as we have during the winter.

But this explanation (by which bathing during winter-nights would be forbidden) would be contrary to the Injunction that lays down early morning bath during the (winter) months of Māgha, and Phālguna; and as such, it must be regarded as a wrong explanation. Nor is there any ground for restricting the prohibition to winter nights only; specially as the text does not contain a second ‘niśā’ (which alone could afford the sense, ‘during the night of those months when nights are long.’)

Along with his garments.’—This implies that the prohibition applies to the case where, during the cold weather, a man is wearing several pieces of clothes; especially bathing with one piece of cloth on is what has been already enjoined by such directions as ‘he shall not bathe naked’ (4.45);—When he is wearing two pieces of cloth, there is uncertainty, he may or may not bathe;—but when he has several pieces on, he shall not bathe.

Water-reservoir’—containing water;—‘unknown’—i.e., with regard to which it is not known whether it is deep or not deep, or whether there are, or are not, allegators in it.

Ajasram’—ever, always.—(129)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 135);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Āhnika, p. 159), which adds that what the first quarter forbids is ‘that bathing which one may do voluntarily, without any occasion, after having taken his food’; it cannot refer to the obligatory daily bathing, which must precede the breakfast; nor can it refer to the bathing that is rendered necessary by the touching of a cāṇḍāla or other unclean things, since it has been laid down that ‘one should not remain unclean for a single moment.’ [This it quotes as from Medhātithi];—then even after food, if such occasions should arise as an eclipse and the like, one must bathe;—‘āturaḥ’ is explained as ‘one suffering from a disease likely to be aggravated by bathing’,—and ‘mahāniśā’ as the second and third quarters of the night;—the phrase ‘na vāsobhiḥ’ is explained as indicating that on those occasions on which it is laid down that one should bathe ‘along with his clothes,’ there would be nothing wrong in doing so even when one is wearing several pieces of cloth.—‘Ajasram’ means ‘constantly.’—The bathing that is forbidden here is such as is done by men either through sheer foolishness or through false notions of purity,—and not that which becomes necessary on one’s arrival at a sacred place.—‘Avijñāte’—means those ‘water-reservoirs’ in regard to which it is not known whether they are deep or otherwise, free or not from alligators and other animals, dug by respectable men or otherwise, and duly consecrated or not.

It is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 246);—in Kālaviveka (p. 340);—in Smṛtitattva, on p. 38, where it is added that what is forbidden is frequent bathing, as is clear from the adverb ‘ajasram’;—on p. 160, where it adds that the prohibition of bathing at night does not apply to bathing at an eclipse;—and on p. 365, where it is explained as referring to that bathing which is done for the mere love of doing it,—and not to that which is rendered necessary on certain occasions and circumstances, nor to the daily bathing;—in Hemādri (Kāla, p. 708), which has the following notes:—‘Bhuktvā,’ this prohibition does not refer to the ordinary daily bath; nor to the bath necessitated by the touch of the Cāṇḍāla, as that impurity must be got rid of immediately; it must refer to the voluntary bath for mere pleasure;—as regards the ‘ātura,’ sick-person, the full bath is forbidden for him at all times;—‘ajasram’ means ‘constantly’;—also in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 857);—in Nityācārapradīpa (p. 306), which has the same note, and says such is the opinion of Medhātithi; it is only the ordinary bath (not religious) that is forbidden at ‘dead of night’ and ‘constantly,’ so also ‘avijñāte.’ &c.—which means ‘that water-reservoir in regard to which it is not known how deep it is or whether or not it is objectionable in any way’;—and in Smṛtisāroddhāra (p. 273).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Baudhāyana (2.3.24).—‘Bathing after sunset (he shall avoid).’

Āpastamba Dharmasūtra (1.32, 8).—Do.

Viṣṇu (64.3.4.6).—‘Nor when suffering from indigestion, nor when he is distressed,—nor during the night and—except when there is an eclipse—nor in the evening.’

Āśvalāyana (3.9.6).—‘He shall not bathe at night; nor naked; he shall not sleep naked.’

Devala (Aparārka, p. 135).—‘One should avoid bathing in a river in the evening.’

Do. (Vīramitrodaya-Āhnika, p. 159).—‘One shall avoid bathing at twilights and at midday.’

Do. (Do., p. 160).—‘The middlemost quarters of the night are called Mahāniśā; at that time one shall not bathe, except when it happens to be an obligatory or circumstantial hath.’

Jābāla (Do.).—‘One should not bathe in another’s tank, nor after taking food, nor at midnight.’

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