Verse 5.140

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

स्पृशन्ति बिन्दवः पादौ य आचामयतः परान् ।
भौमिकैस्ते समा ज्ञेया न तैराप्रयतो भवेत् ॥ १४० ॥

spṛśanti bindavaḥ pādau ya ācāmayataḥ parān |
bhaumikaiste samā jñeyā na tairāprayato bhavet || 140 ||

The drops that touch the feet of one who is helping others to wash should be regarded as on the same footing as those on the ground; and he is not rendered impure by them.—(140)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Helping others to wash,’—i.e. offering water to other persons.

The meaning is as follows When one is pouring water for another person and the latter begins to sip water, if drops of water flowing out from between the fingers of that person happen to fall on the ground and rising from it, touch the feet of the man who is offering the water,—that man is not made impure by them.

‘Those on the ground’.—The drops of water fulling from the hand of the washing person, though unclean, should be regarded to be as clean as small quantities of water collected on clean ground.

‘By them,’— touched, the man does not become impure.—(140)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

(Verse 142 of others.)

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 276);—in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 228), which notes that pādau here include the other limbs also;—and in Vīramitrodaya (Āhnika, p. 113), which adds the following notes:—

The construction is parān ācāmayataḥ; —bhūmigaiḥ means ‘the drops of water falling on the ground’;—the use of the term ācāmayataḥ implies that if the drops of water fallen from the washings of one man happen to touch others than the one who is helping in the washing,—then those latter do become impure;—pādau includes other parts of the body also,—in Smṛtisāroddhāra (p. 251),—in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 972), which says that the construction is parānācamayataḥ pādau, and the meaning is that ‘when one is pouring water for another person rinsing his mouth, then if the water dropped by the latter falls upon the feet of the former, it does not make him unclean, because that water is bhaumikaiḥ samāḥ, clean as any ordinary water on the ground,—it follows that this refers only to the man who is pouring water for the other; other persons standing by do become unclean by the water-drops falling on then feet,—in Nityācārapradīpa (p. 281);—and in Śuddhikaumudī (p. 353).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Baudhāyana (1.10.34).—‘Where drops of water touch the feet of a man who is offering water to others for washing, no defilement is caused by them. They are as pure as water collected on the ground.’

Vaśiṣṭha (3.42).—‘One is not defiled by the drops which fall on his feet, while he is offering water to others for sipping; they are declared to he as good as water on the ground.’

Viṣṇu (23.54).—‘Drops trickling on the feet of a man holding water for others for sipping, are considered to be equal to waters springing from the earth; by them he is not defiled.’

Yājñavalkya (1.195).—(See above, under 139.)