Verse 3.47

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

तासामाद्याश्चतस्रस्तु निन्दितैकादशी च या ।
त्रयोदशी च शेषास्तु प्रशस्ता दशरात्रयः ॥ ४७ ॥

tāsāmādyāścatasrastu ninditaikādaśī ca yā |
trayodaśī ca śeṣāstu praśastā daśarātrayaḥ || 47 ||

Of these the first four days have been deprecated, as also the eleventh and the thirteenth, the remaining ten days have been recommended.—(47)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Of these’—days—‘the first four’— beginning from the day on which the blood is first seen—‘have been deprecated,’—i.e., there should be no intercourse on those days. On the first three days, even touching is prohibited, the woman being impure on those days; on the fourth day, when she has bathed,—though, according to the words of Vaśiṣṭha, she is pure—there is to be no sexual intercourse; all the four days being equally deprecated (for that purpose).

‘The eleventh and the thirteenth’ days also ‘have been deprecated,’—i.e., on those days also intercourse has been forbidden. The ‘eleventh’ and the ‘thirteenth’ days are those counted from the first day of the flow; they do not stand for the two dates of the month; because the genitive ending in ‘tāsām,’ ‘of these,’ signifies selection; and, as the pronoun stands for ‘days,’ it must be the same thing (day) that is selected; just as in the expression, ‘of cows, the black one gives most milk.’

This prohibition of intercourse on the said six days is with a view to a transcendental result.

‘The remaining ten days have been recommended,’—(of the sixteen days) six days having been forbidden, the commendation of the remaining ten days follows naturally; and it is this same natural conclusion that is reiterated here.—(47)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 438);—in Vīramitrodaya (Āhnika, p. 559), which adds that the ‘eleventh’ and other numbers refer to the days of the ‘season;’ the eleventh day of the ‘season’ and so forth;—and in Vidhānapārijāta (II, p. 368) which, for the first quarter, reads tāsāmāpañcataḥ sarvā, which means ‘all days till the fifth’, coming to the same thing—that the first four days are forbidden.

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 104); which adds that the ‘eleventh’ and ‘thirteenth’ are meant to be the days of the ‘season’, not of the fortnight;—in Hemādri (Kāla, p. 727), which adds that the ‘eleventh’ and ‘thirteenth’ are the days, not of the fortnight, but of the ‘period’;—in Saṃskāraratnamālā (p. 682), which has the same note, adding that such is the view of Madanapārijāta;—in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 38), which says that of the sixteen nights, the first four arc to be avoided;—and in Ācāramayūkha (p. 118).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.45-50)

See Comparative notes for Verse 3.45.