Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi
by Ganganatha Jha | 1920 | 1,381,940 words | ISBN-10: 8120811550 | ISBN-13: 9788120811553
This is the English translation of the Manusmriti, which is a collection of Sanskrit verses dealing with ‘Dharma’, a collective name for human purpose, their duties and the law. Various topics will be dealt with, but this volume of the series includes 12 discourses (adhyaya). The commentary on this text by Medhatithi elaborately explains various t...
Verse 11.212
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
गोमूत्रं गोमयं क्षीरं दधि सर्पिः कुशोदकम् ।
एकरात्रोपवासश्च कृच्छ्रं सान्तपनं स्मृतम् ॥ २१२ ॥gomūtraṃ gomayaṃ kṣīraṃ dadhi sarpiḥ kuśodakam |
ekarātropavāsaśca kṛcchraṃ sāntapanaṃ smṛtam || 212 ||Taking cow’s urine, cow-dung, milk, curds, clarified butter, kuśa-water, and fasting for one day,—has been declared to be ‘Sāntapana Kṛcchra’— (212)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
They say that on one day there should be a combination of cow’s urine and other tilings down to ‘Kuśa-water’; and this is to be followed by fastingy for one ḍay. Thus the ‘Sāntapana’ lasts for two days.
Others hold that each of the things named has to be eaten on one day,—as no combination is found mentioned anywhere;—and according to this view, the ‘Sāntapana’ would last for seven days. Both these views have been held by another Smṛti text.—(212)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Prāyaścittaviveka (p. 513), which says that this penance requires seven days for its completion;—and in Saṃskāraratnamālā (p. 782).
Comparative notes by various authors
Baudhāyana (4.5.11).—‘If one lives one day on cow’s urine, one day on cow-dung, one day on milk, one day on sour milk, one day on clarified butter, one day on a decoction of Kuśa grass, and during one day and night, on air; that is called the Sāntapana Kṛcchra.’
Vaśiṣṭha (27.13).—‘Subsisting during one day on each of the following substances—cow’s urine, cowdung, milk, sour milk, butter, and decoction of Kuśa- grass,—and fasting on the seventh day—purifies even him who fears that he has partaken of the food of a Caṇḍāla.’
Parāśara (10.29).—(Same as Manu.)
Viṣṇu (46, 19).—‘Subsisting one day on cow’s urine and cowdung, milk, sour milk, butter and water in which Kuśa grass has been boiled, and fasting the next day, is called Sāntapana.’
Yājñavalkya (3.315).—‘Kuśa-water, cow’s milk, sour milk, urine, cowdung, and butter,—having eaten these, if one fasts on the following day, it is Sāntapana Kṛcchra.’