Verse 3.274

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

अपि नः स कुले भूयाद् यो नो दद्यात् त्रयोदशीम् ।
पायसं मधुसर्पिर्भ्यां प्राक् छाये कुञ्जरस्य च ॥ २७४ ॥

api naḥ sa kule bhūyād yo no dadyāt trayodaśīm |
pāyasaṃ madhusarpirbhyāṃ prāk chāye kuñjarasya ca || 274 ||

‘May there be one in our family, who may offer milk-rice mixed with honey and butter on the thirteenth, and when the shadow of the elephant falls towards the east.’—(274)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

What is said here is with reference to the thirteenth day of the month spoken of above, as accompanied by the rainy season and the asterism of Maghā.

What is described in the text is the wish expressed by the Pitṛs.

‘May there be’—born—‘in our famity’—one such person, endowed with excellent qualities, who may offer to us, on the said thirteenth day, ‘milk-rice mixed with honey and butter;’—also ‘when the shadow of the elephant falls towards the east;’ i.e., during the afternoon; towards the close of day, the shadow cast by the elephant is long and falls towards the East.

Another reading for ‘prākchāyā’ is ‘prākchāyām;’ it is in a shady place that Brāhmaṇas are fed; as for the rest of the rite, if the shade is not enough to permit of its being done there, then it should be done in a place close to the shadow. Since the details form part of the rite, the whole of it should, as far as possible, be performed in the shadow of the elephant.

Some people have explained the term ‘shadow of the elephant’ to mean ‘eclipse,’ adding that Rāhu takes the shape of the elephant and pierces the sun with darkness.

But this is not right; as in that case, the term ‘elephant’ will have to ba regarded as figurative. Further, in another Smṛti the ‘elephant’s shadow’ has been described as something entirely different from eclipse:—‘the elephant’s shadow, the eclipse of the Sun, and the eclipse of the Moon’ [where the three are mentioned as distinct from one another].—(274)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Prākchāye kuñjarasya’—‘In the afternoon, when the shadow cast by the elephant falls towards the East’ (Medhātithi, Kullūka, Nārāyaṇa and Rāghavānanda);—‘daring an eclipse’ (‘others’ in Medhātithi, who rejects it).—Mitākṣarā (on 1.218) quotes a definition by which the name applies to a particular day—

yadenduḥ pitṛdaivatye haṃsaścaiva kare sthitaḥ |
yāmyāṃ tithirbhavetsāhi gajacchāyā prakīrtitā ||

This verse is quoted in Nirṇayasindhu (p. 109), which quotes from Vāyupurāṇa a definition of ‘Gajacchāyā’ as the 13th day of the month during which the sun lies in the asterism of Hastā, and the moon in that of Maghā;—in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 245);—in Śrāddhakriyākaumudī (p. 271), which explains ‘dadyāt’ as ‘dadāti’ and ‘prākchāye etc.’ as ‘when the shadow of the elephant is cast towards the East,’ and notes that this is mere Arthavāda;—and in Vaṛṣakriyākaumudī (p. 355).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Mahābhārata (13.88.12). [after reproducing the first line of Manu].—‘During the asterism of Maghā, during the Southern Sojourn of the sun, offering milk-preparations mixed with honey and butter.’

Vaśiṣṭha (11.37).—‘This person shall offer Śrāddha to us, during ṭhe rains and during the asterism of Maghā, with honey and meats, vegetables, milk and milk-preparations.’

Viṣṇu (78.52-53).—‘May some one, the best among men, be born in our family who, during the rains, on the thirteenth day of the brighter fortnight, perform Śrāddha with honey offered profusely; as also during the whole month of Kārtika, and when the Elephant’s shadow falls towards the East.’