Verse 5.94

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

डिम्भाहवहतानां च विद्युता पार्थिवेन च ।
गोब्राह्मणस्य चेवार्थे यस्य चैच्छति पार्थिवः ॥ ९५ ॥

ḍimbhāhavahatānāṃ ca vidyutā pārthivena ca |
gobrāhmaṇasya cevārthe yasya caicchati pārthivaḥ || 95 ||

Also in the case of those killed in a riot or Battle or by lightning or by the king; and of those who have died for the sake of cows and Brāhmaṇas; as also for the person for whom the king desires it.—(94).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Ḍimba’, ‘Riot’, is fighting done by many people, without weapons; ‘Āhava’ is battle.

In the case of persons killed in these, there is immediate purification.

‘Lightning’—This has been already explained.

‘Pārthiva’—the lord of the Earth, who may belong to any of the four castes.

Also in the case of one who, even apart from battle, has been killed in water, or by tusked animals,—for the sake of cows and Brāhmaṇas.

‘Also for the person for whom the King desires it;’—i.e. the person who has been deputed by him to do a definite work.

Question:—“Why should this be so? In the case of the king himself, immediate purification has been ordained only in reference to his work of protecting the people; how then could the impurity of any and every person, without any restriction, cease merely by the king’s desire?”

[The answer to this is supplied by the next two verses].—(94).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

(Verse 95 of others.)

‘Dimbāhava’—a riot, or a fight without weapons (Medhātithi);—infants’ (Nandana).

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 916), as laying down additional cases for ‘immediate purity’; it explains ‘dimbāhava,’ as ‘weaponless fight’;—in Gadādharapaddhati (Kāla, p. 317), which takes ‘āhavahata,’ ‘killed in battle’ and remarks that this refers to persons who have been killed ‘when fleeing from battle’, as otherwise there would be no justification for the offerings to the dead described in the Mahābhārata.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gautama (14.9-12).—‘The relations of those who are slain for the sake of cows and Brāhmaṇas become pure immediately; also those of men destroyed by the anger of the king; of those killed in battle; likewise those of men who voluntarily die by starving themselves, by weapons, fire, poison or water, by hanging themselves or by jumping from a precipice.’

Viṣṇu (22.47, 52).—‘The relatives of those who have been killed by jumping from a precipice, or by fire or by fasting, or by water, in battle, by lightning, or by the king, do not become impure; nor those who perform the king’s orders, if the king wishes them to he pure.’

Yama (Aparārka, p. 907).—‘The relatives of those killed in a riot, or those of suicides, or of those who have been drowned in river or killed by wild animals, become purified instantaneously.’

Bṛhaspati (Do.).—‘For the relations of those killed in rots, or by lightning, or by the king, or in the saving of cows and Brāhmaṇas, they have declared instantaneous purification; but some sages have declared that the impurity lasts three days.’

Parāśara (3.29-30).—‘For the relations of persons who have died for the sake of Brāhmaṇas, or in the saving of prisoners or cows, and those who have died in battle, the impurity lasts for one night.’

Sumantu (Aparārka, p. 917).—‘For those killed by jumping from a precipice, or by ûre or water, or in battle,—those who die in foreign lands, the renunciate—those killed by fasting, those killed by lightning, or those who have committed suicide by going on the Great Journey,—water-offerings may be made, and the purification is instantaneous.’

Kāśyapa (Do.).—‘The relations of those killed by fasting or by lightning, or by entering fire or water, by fall from a precipice, or in battle, or in foreign land,—or of embryos, or of infants that have teethed,—are purified in three nights.’