Verse 5.57 [Impurity due to Death]

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

प्रेतशुद्धिं प्रवक्ष्यामि द्रव्यशुद्धिं तथैव च ।
चतुर्णामपि वर्णानां यथावदनुपूर्वशः ॥ ५७ ॥

pretaśuddhiṃ pravakṣyāmi dravyaśuddhiṃ tathaiva ca |
caturṇāmapi varṇānāṃ yathāvadanupūrvaśaḥ || 57 ||

I am going to describe, in due order, purification on death, as also purification of substances, as prescribed for all the four castes.—(57)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘For all the four castes’.—This is meant to imply that the duties of the Śūdra, generally laid down only in a vague form, could not be known without special effort.

‘Pretaśuddhi’,—the purification of the living after the death of other persons. This compound is according to the general rule ‘A noun with a declensional ending is compounded with anther noun with a declensional ending’.

Though the author announces that he is going to describe the purification, yet, in as much ‘purification is dependent upon, and relative to, ‘impurity’, and us it is the function of the treatise to provide information regarding both, the author is going to describe first the occasions of ‘Impurity’.—(57).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Mahābhārata (13.115.14, 36) (116.11).—(Reproduces Manu, the second line reading as ‘Nāradaḥ prāha dharmātmā niyatam sovasīdati under 14; and under 36, the second line reading as ‘udvignavāso vasati yatra yatrābhijāyate’ and under 116.16, the second line reading as ‘nāsti kṣudratarastasmāt sa nṛśaṃsataro naraḥ.’)

Viṣṇu (51.76).—(Same as Manu.)

Yājñavalkya (1.181).—(See above, under 47.)