Verse 4.198

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

न धर्मस्यापदेशेन पापं कृत्वा व्रतं चरेत् ।
व्रतेन पापं प्रच्छाद्य कुर्वन् स्त्रीशूद्रदम्भनम् ॥ १९८ ॥

na dharmasyāpadeśena pāpaṃ kṛtvā vrataṃ caret |
vratena pāpaṃ pracchādya kurvan strīśūdradambhanam || 198 ||

Having committed a sin, he shall not perform penance un der the pretext of doing a righteous act,—deceiving women and Śūdras by thus covering his sin by a penance.—(198)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Having committed a sin, he shall not perform a penance,’—in the shape of an expiatory rite;—‘under the pretext of doing a righteous act;’—pretending righteousness, he makes it known among people that he is doing the penance purely as a religious act., and that there has been no occasion for his doing it as an expiatory rite; though, in reality, he is doing it as an expiatory rite. This is what one should not do.

‘By covering sin,’—by concealing his sin—one shall not—by means of the said righteous act—seek to deceive ‘women and Śūdras.’

The meaning is that, when one has to perforin an expiatory rite, one shall openly perform it as such, except in the case of the Expiatory Rites distinctly laid down as ‘secret’—(198).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka, (p. 1229).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 4.195-199)

See Comparative notes for Verse 4.195.