Verse 9.66

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

अयं द्विजैर्हि विद्वद्भिः पशुधर्मो विगर्हितः ।
मनुष्याणामपि प्रोक्तो वेने राज्यं प्रशासति ॥ ६६ ॥

ayaṃ dvijairhi vidvadbhiḥ paśudharmo vigarhitaḥ |
manuṣyāṇāmapi prokto vene rājyaṃ praśāsati || 66 ||

During the time that King Vena was ruling over his kingdom, this reprehensible bestial practice was introduced by ignorant twice-born men among men also.—(66)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This also is a declamatory supplement to the prohibition of ‘authorisation.’ The ‘ignorant’ men, who do not know the scriptures, and who do not understand that the indicative power of the texts points to something entirely different,—‘introduced’ ‘this bestial practice,’ which is most ‘reprehensible,’ ‘among men also’; and this was done not during modern times, but ‘during the time that Vena’—(he first king—‘was ruling over his kingdom’—looking after his realm.

“It has been said that there are no sacred texts indicative of prevalence of this practice.”

Not so; what was said was that there was no such indicative in the texts recited at marriage; in other texts there certainly are words indicative of it; for instance, there is the mantra—‘Ko vā sa putro vidhaveva deraram mayā nu doṣo kṛṇute sadhastha’ (Ṛgveda, 10.40.2),—which means ‘who is the woman that invites you Aśvins to her bed in the manner in which the widow invites to her bed her younger brother-in-law,—that you do not come up?’

“But what peculiarity is there in the mantras used at marriage (that capital is made of there being no indication in them of the practice in question)?”

What is meant is that the texts connected with marriage are more nearly connected with the subject of the begetting of children.

Others read ‘vidvadbhiḥ’ (for ‘avidvadbhiḥ’); and the meaning of this would be—‘This practice, of having intercourse with the brother’s wife, which is fit for beasts, has been declared by the learned to be reprehensible, for men,—and it was introduced during the reign of King Vena.’—(66)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 738);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra, 186a).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 9.60-68)

See Comparative notes for Verse 9.60.