Verse 10.91

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

भोजनाभ्यञ्जनाद् दानाद् यदन्यत् कुरुते तिलैः ।
कृमिभूतः श्वविष्ठायां पितृभिः सह मज्जति ॥ ९१ ॥

bhojanābhyañjanād dānād yadanyat kurute tilaiḥ |
kṛmibhūtaḥ śvaviṣṭhāyāṃ pitṛbhiḥ saha majjati || 91 ||

If one does with sesamum anything else, except eating, anointing and giving,—he becomes a worm and plunges into the ordure of dogs, along with his ancestors.—(91)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

In connection with the prohibition of the selling of sesamum except under the said conditions, we have this declamatory statement.

“It has been declared that the mention of the wrong involved in the doing of what is forbidden is the purpose served by declamatory assertions; why then should the declamatory statement in the present ease be put forward in the form—‘He becomes a worm if he does anything else with sesamum than eating, anointing and giving?’”

The answer to this is as follows:—This has been asserted in this form because the result spoken of is one that is impossible and also contrary to what has been asserted in other treatises. For instance, it is said here that the man plunges into ordure ‘along with his ancestors,’—and certainly no wrong is committed by these ancestors; the results of good and bad acts always accrue to the man that does them; in no sense could the ancestors be the persons that did the act in question; all which has been already discussed before. Then again, it is said below (in 92) that—‘by selling meat he at once becomes an outcaste’; where becoming an out-caste could not apply to any one else except the seller himself. From all this it is clear that all that is meant to be really related to the prohibition is that something undesirable happens; and the words of the text cannot be taken as literally true. Hence what is meant is that ‘the man who does anything else—in the shape of selling and the like—with sesamum than eating and the rest, becomes a worm,—i.e., becomes tainted with the evil effects described.’—(91)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 933);—in Mitākṣarā (3.39), to the effect that the selling of sesamum otherwise than what is mentioned in the preceding verse is sinful;—in Parāśaramādhava (Ā cāra p. 431);—and in Saṃskāramayūkha (p. 124).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 10.85-93)

See Comparative notes for Verse 10.85.