Verse 5.19 [Penalty for eating Forbidden Food]

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

छत्राकं विड्वराहं च लशुनं ग्रामकुक्कुटम् ।
पलाण्डुं गृञ्जनं चैव मत्या जग्ध्वा पतेद् द्विजः ॥ १९ ॥

chatrākaṃ viḍvarāhaṃ ca laśunaṃ grāmakukkuṭam |
palāṇḍuṃ gṛñjanaṃ caiva matyā jagdhvā pated dvijaḥ || 19 ||

The mushroom, the village-pig, garlic, the village-cock, onions and leeks,—the twice-born man eating these intentionally would become an ou tcast.—(19).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Chatraka’ is the same as karaka, the mushroom.

‘Viḍvarāha’ is the village-pig, which wanders about unchecked.

By eating these the man becomes an outcast. That is, he should perform the Expiatory Rites prescribed for outcasts. It will be asserted later on (11.56)—‘The eating of forbidden food is like the drinking of wine.’—(19)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 1157), which notes that the intentional eating of these things make the twice-born person an ‘outcast,’ i.e., disqualifies him from all that is done by twice-born persons, and the expiation for this would be the same as that prescribed for wine-drinking.

It is quoted in Mitākṣarā (on 1.176), which says that this refers to intentional and repeated eating of the things; also on 3.229;—in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 317), as referring to intentional eating;—and in Madanapārijāta (p. 825) to the effect that the intentional eating of forbidden things is equal to wine-drinking; and again on p. 927, to the effect that it is intentional and repeated eating that is equal to wine-drinking and hence makes one outcast, while by intentionally eating these only once, one only becomes liable to the performance of the Cāndrāyaṇa.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gautama (23.5).—‘(Expiation is to be performed) for the eating of tame cocks or tame pigs.’

Viṣṇu (51.3-4).—‘If the twice-born eat of the following—garlic, onion, tame pig, tame cock,—he should perform expiations and should go through the sacraments over again.’

Yājñavalkya (1.176).—‘Onion, tame pig, mushroom, tame cock, garlic, and leeks,—on eating these one should perform the Cāndrāyaṇa.’

Parāśara (2.9-10).—‘Milk of newly calved cow, white garlic, brinjals, leeks, onion, exudation from trees, the property of gods, mushrooms, milk of the camel, milk of sheep,—if the twice-born eats these unintentionally, he becomes purified by fasting for three days and eating Pañcagavya.’