Verse 3.147

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

एष वै प्रथमः कल्पः प्रदाने हव्यकव्ययोः ।
अनुकल्पस्त्वयं ज्ञेयः सदा सद्भिरनुष्ठितः ॥ १४७ ॥

eṣa vai prathamaḥ kalpaḥ pradāne havyakavyayoḥ |
anukalpastvayaṃ jñeyaḥ sadā sadbhiranuṣṭhitaḥ || 147 ||

This is the first course to be adopted in the presenting of the offerings made to Gods and Pitṛs. This (following) is to be regarded as the secondary course always adopted by the good.’—(147)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Beginning with verse 122, twenty-five verses have gone before; and the upshot of them all is as follows: (a) Śrāddhas should be performed on the moon-less day;—(b) the person fed should be learned in the Veda, highly educated, of right behaviour, belonging to a known family, the sou of a person learned in the Veda and not bearing any relationship to the person offering the Śrāddha. The rest of it all is only commendatory.

‘This’—what has been just described,—is ‘the the first’— the primary—‘course’—procedure at Śrāddhas; viz., that, the food shall be presented to one who is not related to the performer.

‘This’—what is going to be described—‘should be regarded as ‘the secondary course’—which is to be adopted only in the event of the primary course being not possible This course is called ‘anukalpa,’ ‘secondary course,’ by the ‘law of substitutes’ (propounded in Mīmāṃsā-sūtra 3.6.37 et. seq.).

‘Always adopted’— this is purely commendatory.—(147)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (on 1.220, p. 146) in support of the view that the sister’s son and other similar relatives (mentioned in the next verse, and in Yājñavalkya, 1.220) are to be fed at the Śrāddha only if the above described ‘Brāhmaṇa learned in the Veda’ is not available;—in Madanapārijāta (p. 558), along with the next verse;—in Hemādri (Śrāddha; p. 447);—in Godādharapaddhati (Kāla, p. 514), which remarks that this secondary method is put forward in view of the fact that very few Brāhmaṇas are really fit for being fed at Śrāddha;—and in Saṃskāraratnamālā (p. 991).

Medhātithi (P. 250, l. 15)—‘Pratinidhinyāyenā.’—See Mīmāṃsā sūtra 3.6.37. The Yava having been laid down as a substitute at sacrifices for the Vrīhi, the question is raised as to the necessity or otherwise of performing all those acts in connection with the substitute which have been laid down in connection with the original; and the conclusion is that the substitute has to be treated exactly in the same manner as the original.