Verse 5.28

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

प्राणस्यान्नमिदं सर्वं प्रजापतिरकल्पयत् ।
स्थावरं जङ्गमं चैव सर्वं प्राणस्य भोजनम् ॥ २८ ॥

prāṇasyānnamidaṃ sarvaṃ prajāpatirakalpayat |
sthāvaraṃ jaṅgamaṃ caiva sarvaṃ prāṇasya bhojanam || 28 ||

Prajāpati created all this as food for the vital spirit; and all that is movable or immovable is the food of the vital spirit (28).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Vital spirit,’—‘the breath within the body, the very seed of life. For the sustenance of this breath, as functioning in the fivefold form of ‘Udāna’ and the rest,—and for its maintenance in the body,—‘Prajāpati created all this’—world—as food.

Having indicated the world in a general way, by means of the pronoun ‘this’, the author proceeds to specify it in details—‘all that is movable or immovable’. All this, on account of what is said in the first half, is the ‘food of the vital- spirit’. The second ‘all’ is not redundant, since it is added with a view to indicate the various kinds of beings,—beasts, birds, men, reptiles, etc.

Since Prajāpati has ordained all this to be ‘food’ in times of distress, all of it is the food of the vital spirit. This is also what we read in the dialogue of the Vital Breath contained in the Upaniṣads—‘He asked—what shall be my food?—Whatever exists, down to the dogs and down to the insects and worms’—(28).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Āhnika, p. 527), as reiterative of what has gone before;—and in Smṛtitattva (p. 449).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Mahābhārata (12.10.6).—(Same as Manu, reading iti vai kavayo viduḥ’ for ‘Prajāpatirakalpayat.’)