Verse 11.193 [Expiation for Brāhmaṇas acquiring Property by Improper Means]

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

यद् गर्हितेनार्जयन्ति कर्मणा ब्राह्मणा धनम् ।
तस्योत्सर्गेण शुध्यन्ति जप्येन तपसैव च ॥ १९३ ॥

yad garhitenārjayanti karmaṇā brāhmaṇā dhanam |
tasyotsargeṇa śudhyanti japyena tapasaiva ca || 193 ||

When Brāhmaṇas acquire property by an objectionable act, they become pure by giving it up, and also by repeating sacred texts and performing austerities.—(193)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Objectionable’— Though the text uses this general term, it should be understood as standing for the ‘accepting of improper gifts,’ because what the next verse lays down refers to the particular means of acquiring property; what is said is that ‘the man becomes absolved from the sin of accepting an improper gift.’

‘Giving it up’—Relinquishing; renouncing all sense of ownership with regard to it, or actually giving it away. Unmindful of any spiritual or temporal benefits that might accrue from the relinquishment, he should deposit, the property on the public road, saying—‘anyone who wishes may take this from me’;—or he may throw it away into a river or a pit. or in some such place.

The exact forms of the ‘repeating of sacred texts’ and ‘austerities’ are going to be described in the verse referred to above.

Others lead ‘mānavāḥ’ (‘men’) in place of ‘Brāhmaṇāḥ,’ and explain the verse as follows:—Any means of acquiring property that has been forbidden for a man—be he a twice-born or Śūdra—is ‘objectionable’ for him. E.g., it has been declared that—‘The Brāhmaṇa or the Kṣatriya shall not take interest’ (10.117). For one who earns wealth by such means, the expiation consists of ‘giving up,’ ‘repeating of texts’ and ‘austerities,’ all three combined. In the ease of the Brāhmaṇa accepting an improper gift, however, there is a special expiation as described in the following verse.—(193)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vidhānapārijāta ĪI (p. 476);—in Nirṇayasindhu (p. 49);—in Aparārka (p. 1150);—in Mitākṣarā (3.290), which adds that this surrendering should be done in every ease before the performance of the expiation specially prescribed for the act;—in Madanapārijāta (p. 925), which notes that ‘japyena’ refers to the 300 repetitions of the Sāvitrī laid down in the next verse;—in Śrāddhakriyākaumudī (p. 222), which says that, this clearly implies that the religious act, that the man does with the ill-gotten wealth also becomes vitiated to that extent;—in Prāyaścittaviveka (pp. 403 and 415);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra 165a), to the effect when a man acquires property by methods not sanctioned by the scriptures, he does not obtain any legal possession of that property, and hence his sons also have no claims to inherit that, property.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

[See above, 10.111.]

Viṣṇu (54.28).—‘Those Brāhmaṇas who have acquired property by base acts become free from the consequent sin by relinquishing that property and by reciting sacred texts and practising austerities.’