Verse 2.39

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

अत ऊर्ध्वं त्रयोऽप्येते यथाकालमसंस्कृताः ।
सावित्रीपतिता व्रात्या भवन्त्यार्यविगर्हिताः ॥ ३९ ॥

ata ūrdhvaṃ trayo'pyete yathākālamasaṃskṛtāḥ |
sāvitrīpatitā vrātyā bhavantyāryavigarhitāḥ || 39 ||

Beyond this, all these three, not having received the sacrament at the proper time, become excluded from Sāvitrī (initiation), and thereby come to be known as ‘Vrātyas’ (apostates), despised by all good men.—(39)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Beyond’—after—the said time, ‘all these three’ castes—the Brāhmaṇa and the rest;—‘at the proper time’—at the exact time prescribed for each caste, or even at the secondary period permitted;—‘not having received the sacrament’—not having their Upanayana- ceremony performed;—‘excluded from Sāvitrī’—become fallen off from Initiation; and also ‘come to he known as Vrātyas’—‘despised,’ looked down upon, ‘by all good men’ by respectable and cultured people.

This verse is intended to explain the signification of the well known name ‘Vrātya’ That they become excluded from Initiation has already been implied in the preceding verse.

It has been said that they ‘are despised by good men’; the next verse explains the nature of contempt in which they are held.—(39)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava, (Ācāra, p. 446), and in Madanapārijāta (p. 36), where it is explained that on the expiry of the limit mentioned in verse 38, the boy becomes a ‘Vrātya,’ ‘apostate’, and can be invested only after having become sanctified by the performance of the Vrātyastoma rite.

Madanapārijāta (p. 36) goes on to add that the dumb and the insane, as never fit for the sacraments, are not to be regarded as ‘apostates’ by reason of the omission of the sacraments; so that in the event of their having children these latter do not lose their Brāhmaṇa-hood or their right to the sacraments.

Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 347) quotes this verse as from Manu and Yama both.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(Verse 38-39)

See Comparative notes for Verse 2.38.