Verse 5.111

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

निर्लेपं काञ्चनं भाण्डमद्भिरेव विशुध्यति ।
अब्जमश्ममयं चैव राजतं चानुपस्कृतम् ॥ १११ ॥

nirlepaṃ kāñcanaṃ bhāṇḍamadbhireva viśudhyati |
abjamaśmamayaṃ caiva rājataṃ cānupaskṛtam || 111 ||

A golden vessel, free from stains, becomes pure by water alone; so also what is produced in water, what is made of stone and what is made of silver, if it is not enchased (or verse much defiled).—(111).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This rule applies to two particular metals, gold and silver, when they are free from stains; as for other metals, copper and the rest, their cleansing is to be done with washing with powdered bricks and such things, just as in the case of their bring defiled by leavings of food. There is no stain in a vessel in which milk or water has been drunk. As regards the case where parts of the vessel become stained by the leavings of meat, butter, milk and such things, the author is going to lay down distinct means of cleansing—‘By that from which they sprang &c.’ (113). Then again, since the text has spoken of the removal of ‘smells and stains’, we should make use of such cleansing substances as may be capable of removing a particular stain; and it is not necessary to make use of ash and water in all cases. Hārīta mentions several such cleansing substances, as ‘powdered wheat, rice, peas, barley, kidney-bean and lentil’; and he proceeds to say—‘even when gold and silver vessels are not stained, if they have been touched by a Cāndāla, or by a menstruating woman, they should be cleaned with ash twenty-one times.’

Śaṅkha however has declared thus—‘Of metal vessels defiled by a dead body or blood or semen or urine or ordure, there should be either alteration or scrubbing or washing twenty-one times with ash’. There should be ‘alteration’ in the case of vessels long immersed in urine &c.; ‘alteration’ means the destruction of the original name and form and the bringing about of another shape and name;—‘scrubbing’ means scratching with a sharp weapon or with stone.

Another Smṛti-text has prescribed’ (l) melting, (2) heating and (3) hammering.’—When the vessel has been put into the melting-pot by the goldsmith, it becomes pure ‘burning’, i.e., being pat into fire by goldsmiths ‘hammering i.e., heating and then placing on the anvil and hammering, in the melting-pot it bring declared that ‘all mines are pure.’

‘What is produced out of water’—the conch-shell, the rock-crystal and the like. For the stained conch-shell there is purification by the paste of white mustard, or by cow’s-urine and water, or by milk. We read in another Smṛti—‘The couch-shell is purified by water; if it is defiled and oily, then by milk and water, and by the paste of white mustard.’

‘Anupaskṛtam’ ‘enchased’, i.e., the chasings in which are not filled (with unclean things), not very much defiled. This goes with every one of the things mentioned; hence in the case of every one of these being defiled with the touch of dry unclean things or of the caṇḍāla and the like,—even though there be no stain,—the purification is to be as described before, in accordance with other Smṛti-texts.—(111).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

(Verse 112 of others.)

This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 446), which explains ‘anupaskṛtam’ as ‘not chased’, i.e., ‘the chasings whereof do not retain any such unclean thing as wine, food leavings and so forth’;—in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 805);—in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 134), which explains ‘anupaskṛtam’ as ‘unsoiled,’ and ‘abjam’ as ‘the conch and such things’;—in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda, (Śrāddha, p. 15b);—in Aparārka, (p. 254), which explains ‘anupaskṛtam’ as ‘the chasings wherein are not filled with copper or other metals’;—in Mitākṣarā, (on 1.193), which explains ‘anupaskṛtam’ as ‘akhātapūritam’ (the term used by Medhātithi), i. e., ‘the chasings in which are not filled in’;—in Nityācārapradīpa, (p. 96), which explains ‘nirlepam’ as absolutely unsoiled;—and in Śuddhikaumudī, (p. 305), which explains ‘abja’ as ‘conches, shells and the like,’—‘ca’ as including glass-vessels, and ‘anupaskṛtam’ as ‘not chased or otherwise modified.’

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 5.111-112)

Baudhāyana (1.8, 33, 46, 47).—‘Copper, silver and gold must be cleansed with acids,—conch-shells, horn, pearl-shell and ivory, with a paste of yellow mustard; or they may he cleansed with milk.’

Vaśiṣṭha (3.61, 62).—‘Gold is purified by fire alone; likewise silver.’

Viṣṇu (23.7).—‘Objects made of gold, silver, shells, or gems, when not smeared, are cleansed with water.’

Yājñavalkya (1.182).—(See above, under 110.)

Parāśara (7.25-30).—‘Iron things are cleansed by being scrubbed with iron; lead by heating in fire; vessels made of ivory, bone, horn, silver and gold, as also gems, stones and conch-shells, one should wash with water; in stone however, scrubbing also should be done; earthenware is cleansed by heating in fire; grains by water sprinkled on them; things made of bamboo, tree-bark, linen, cotton cloth and woolen cloth, are purified by washing. For muñja grass and things made of it, winnowing basket, jute, fruits and leather, grasses, wood and ropes, sprinkling with water has been prescribed. Cotton-beds and pillows, red-coloured cloths and the ? become pure by being dried over fire and then sprinkled with water.’

Mārkaṇḍeyapurūṇa (Parāśaramādhava, p. 134).—‘Vessels and men are purified by water; metal things are cleansed by washing with water and scrubbing with stone.’