Verse 3.171

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

दाराग्निहोत्रसंयोगं कुरुते योऽग्रजे स्थिते ।
परिवेत्ता स विज्ञेयः परिवित्तिस्तु पूर्वजः ॥ १७१ ॥

dārāgnihotrasaṃyogaṃ kurute yo'graje sthite |
parivettā sa vijñeyaḥ parivittistu pūrvajaḥ || 171 ||

He who unites himself with “wife” and “Agnihotra,” while his elder remains, is to be regarded as the “superseder of his elder;” and the elder is to be regarded as “one who is superseded.”’—(171)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Agraja,’ ‘elder brother’—is the uterine brother born before one. Thus has it been asserted—‘There is no harm in the superseding of the uncle’s sons, the step-mother’s sons and the sons of other’s wives, by marriage and the setting up of fire;’ hence, in the present context, the term ‘elder brother’ stands for the uterine brother. While he ‘remains’—i.e., without marriage and without having set up the fire; the root ‘stkā’ (in the term ‘sthitê’) has been used in the sense of the absence of the act mentioned.

The term ‘agnihotra,’ though the name of the act of sacrifice, stands for the setting up of fire for purposes of that act.

In another smṛti, we find an exception—‘the lunatic, the sinner, the leper, the outcast, the eunuch and the consumptive need not be waited for.’ What is mentioned here is meant to be indicative of the condition in the form of the elder brother being in any way not entitled (to marry and set up the fire). Hence the ‘defiler of company’ is also included.

A special period has also been specified during which one is to wait for his elder brother to marry and set up the fire—‘one should wait for eight years,’—‘some say for six years’ (Gautama, 18.19). This period is to be reckoned from the time when the younger brother has reached the age of marriage; and the age of marriage is the time when one has duly fulfilled the injunction of Vedic Study.

“As a matter of fact, the period of time stated in the passage quoted refers to the man who has gone out travelling. The passage quoted above begins with the word ‘the elder brother being,’ which refers to the time during which the elder brother is out on travel. [So that it can have no bearing upon supersession by marriage].”

True; but the term ‘who has gone out on travel’ is distinctly found to be connected with one sentence [this sentence being ‘pravrajite nivṛttiḥ prasaṅgāt, Gautama, 18.16]; so that, for connecting the same word with another sentence [‘bhrātari chaivam jyāyasi yavīyān, 18.18], some special reasons should be stated. There is, however, no such reason; as there is in the case of such words as ‘there is connection between this and the term svarita;’ no such words, however, are found in the case of the sentences in question; nor is one sentence incomplete without the connection of the word in question.

Vaśiṣṭha has used the generic term ‘fire and has, therefore, meant the ‘Smārta’ Fire.

Some people have held this definition of ‘superseder’ to apply also to one whose father has not set up the Fire; the term ‘agraja,’ ‘elder,’ meaning simply ‘one born before one;’ so that the Father also is one’s ‘elder.’

In this manner, what is said here would apply to other ‘older’ persons also; as a matter of fact, however, the terms ‘younger’ and ‘elder’ are never used between father and son.

In another Smṛti we find—‘the elder brother being, etc., etc.’ (Gautama, 18.18. where the Brother is specifically mentioned).

The elder brother is called the ‘superseded’— (171)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Medhātithi—(P. 259, l.5)—‘Bhrātarītyādi paṭhitam’,—i.e., in Gautama ‘Pravrajite nivṛttiḥ prasaṅgāt’ (18.16)... ‘Bhrātari chaivam jyāyasi yavīyān kanyāgnyupayameṣu’ (18.18);—the latter Sūtra is referred to again in 1.11.

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (on 1.223) in the sense that—‘the younger brother, who takes a wife or sets up the Fire, before his elder brother has done so, is called Parivettā, and the elder brother is called Parivitti.’

Aparārka deals with this subject in detail, under this same text of Yājñavalkya.

Madanapārijāta (p. 170) quotes this verse and explains that the ‘elder brother’ meant here is the uterine brother, not the step-brother.

It is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 760), which also explains that the ‘elder brother’ meant is the uterine brother, as is clearly declared in a text quoted from Garga. It quotes another verse from ‘Manu’, which is not found in our texts:—

agraje brahmacaryasthe yo'nujo dārasaṅgraham |
kurute parivettā sa paricitto'grejo bhavet ||

It has a curious note regarding the exact signification of the term ‘ṣodarya’ (generally understood to mean uterine): It says—‘sodaryatva’ is of three kinds—(1) due to the father being the same; (2) due to the mother being the same, and (3) due to both being the same; the idea that ‘sodaryatva’ is based upon the sameness of the Father is derived from the Garbhopaniṣad text that ‘at first the fetus is born in the male’, as also from the Mahābhārata text—‘Having stayed in the father’s stomach, he entered the Mother through his semen’; and again in the same work, Kacha is representented as saying to Devayānī that she was his ‘sister’ because she had lived in the same father’s stomach as he himself had done.

The verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācara, p. 690), where also ‘elder brother’ is explained as the uterine brother;—also in Vidhānapārijāta (p. 723), where the construction of the phrase ‘agraje sthite’ is explained as ‘agraje anūḍhe akṛtāgnihotre ca sthite’. The untraced verse from ‘Manu’ quoted in Vīramitrodaya is quoted here also.

This verse is quoted in Nirṇayasindhu (p. 233) as forbidding the setting up of the Fire by the younger brother if it has been already set up by his elder;—and in Aparārka (p. 445, and again on p. 1050) as defining the Parivitti;—in Hemādri (Kāla, p. 811), which notes that this refers to uterine brothers only, and that also not in cases where the elder brother is either an outcaste, or insane, or sexless, or blind, or deaf, or dumb, or idiot, or dwarf, or leper, or suffering from leucoderma, or consumptive, or suffering from dropsy, or from some incurable disease, or heretic, or renunciate, or gone away for a long time;—in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 371);—and in Saṃskāraratnamālā (p. 514).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gobhila-Smṛti (1.70).—‘He who takes a wife or performs fire-laying before his elder brother should be regarded as the Superseder of the Elder, and the elder brother is to be regarded as the Superseded.’

Laghu-Śātātapa (40).—[Reproduces the words of Manu.]

Garga (Parāśaramādhava, p. 690).—‘While the uterine elder brother remains unmarried, if one takes a wife or lays the fire, he becomes an outcast.’

Śātātapa (Do.).—‘The sin of supersession is not involved if one marries before such brothers as are the sons of uncles or of step-mothers, or of other women.’

Yama (Parāśaramādhava, p. 690).—(Do.)