Verse 11.199 [Expiation for Dog-bite and similar Offences]

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

श्वशृगालखरैर्दष्टो ग्राम्यैः क्रव्याद्भिरेव च ।
नराश्वोष्ट्रवराहैश्च प्राणायामेन शुध्यति ॥ १९९ ॥

śvaśṛgālakharairdaṣṭo grāmyaiḥ kravyādbhireva ca |
narāśvoṣṭravarāhaiśca prāṇāyāmena śudhyati || 199 ||

When bitten by a dog, or a jackal, or an ass, or by a tame carnivorous animal, or by a man, or a camel, or a pig—he becomes pure by ‘breath-suppression.’—(199)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Bitten’—with the teeth.

‘Tame carnivorous animal’—such as the cat, the ichneumon and so forth.—(199)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (3.277);—in Aparārka (p. 1135);—and in Prāyaścittaviveka (pp. 11 and 448).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gautama (23.7).—‘If one has been bitten by a carnivorous beast, or a camel or an ass or a tame cock or a tame pig, he shall thrice suspend his breath and eat clarified butter.’

Vaśiṣṭha (23.31).—‘A Brāhmaṇa who has been bitten by a dog becomes pure if he goes to a river flowing into the ocean, bathes there, suppresses his breath one hundred times and eats clarified butter.’

Viṣṇu (54.12).—‘He who has been bitten by a dog, a jackal, a tame pig, an ass, an ape, a crow, or a public prostitute, shall approach a river and standing there shall suspend his breath sixteen times.’

Yājñavalkya (3.277).—‘One who has been bitten by a wanton woman, an ape, an ass, a dog, a camel or crows, becomes pure by performing breath-suspension in water and then eating clarified butter.’