Verse 5.77

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

बाले देशान्तरस्थे च पृथक्पिण्डे च संस्थिते ।
सवासा जलमाप्लुत्य सद्य एव विशुध्यति ॥ ७७ ॥

bāle deśāntarasthe ca pṛthakpiṇḍe ca saṃsthite |
savāsā jalamāplutya sadya eva viśudhyati || 77 ||

In the event of a child, resident in a foreign country, who is a non-sapiṇḍa relation, dying,—one becomes pure immediately, by plunging into water wth his clothes on.—(77).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Child’—i.e., a son that has not yet teethed;—‘resident in a foreign country’—who is a non-sapiṇḍa relation’—‘dying’,—all these terms are in apposition.

‘Non-Sapiṇḍa’—i.e., Samānodaka.

When such a person dies while residing in a foreign country, the purification is ‘immediate.’

When such a person dies near at hand, then the purification comes sifter ‘three days’—as declared in verse 63 above—(77).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

VERSE LXXVII

(Verse 78 of others.)

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 905), which notes that ‘deśāntarastha,’ ‘in a distant country,’ qualifies both the ‘bāla’ and the ‘asapiṇḍa’;—again on p. 909, where the ‘pṛthakpiṇḍa’ is explained as the ‘non-sapiṇḍa and the ‘bāla’ as ‘one whose naming has not been done’;—in Hāralatā (p. 33), which explains ‘deśāntarastha’ etc., to mean that ‘on hearing of the death of a Sapiṇḍa after the lapse of ten days, those for whom the normal period of impurity is one day only, becomes purified immediately, by bathing only;—and in Dānakriyākaumudī (p. 25).

The verse is quoted also in Smṛtitattva (II, p. 274).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gautama (14.20).—‘When a relative who is not a Sapiṇḍa or a relative by marriage, or a fellow-student, has died, the impurity lasts for one night along with the preceding and following days.’

Gautama (14.14).—‘If infants, relations living in a distant country, those who have renounced domestic life, and those who are not Sapiṇḍas, die, the purification is immediate.’