Verse 1.10.3

एतेषां मे देहीति होवाच तानस्मै प्रददौ हन्तानुपानमित्युच्छिष्टं वै मे पीतंस्यादिति होवाच ॥ १.१०.३ ॥

eteṣāṃ me dehīti hovāca tānasmai pradadau hantānupānamityucchiṣṭaṃ vai me pītaṃsyāditi hovāca || 1.10.3 ||

3. Uṣasti said to the elephant-driver, ‘Please give me some [of the pulses].’ The driver then gave away the pulses and said, ‘Here is some water.’ [But Uṣasti declined it, saying,] ‘That will amount to my drinking unclean water’.

Word-for-word explanation:

Ha uvāca, [Uṣasti] said; eteṣām, out of this; me dehi iti, give me [some]; tān, those [pulses]; asmai, to him [i.e., to Uṣasti]; pradadau, gave away; hanta, [the elephant-driver said] here is; anupānam iti, drinking water; iti ha uvāca, [Uṣasti] said; me ucchiṣṭam vai pītam syāt, [if I drink the water you are offering] I would be drinking unclean water [because someone else has drunk from it].

Commentary:

Uṣasti must have been very hungry. Although the elephant-driver said he had no other food than what was in his bowl, Uṣasti begged for that anyway. The driver kindly obliged and then also offered him some water to drink. This, however, Uṣasti declined. He said he would then be drinking unclean (ucchiṣṭa) water—that is, water that someone else had already drunk from. But the driver raised the question: If Uṣasti could take the unclean (according to him) food, why could he not take the unclean water also?