Verse 11.48 [Physical Effects of Unexpiated Offences committed in Previous Lives]

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

इह दुश्चरितैः के चित् के चित् पूर्वकृतैस्तथा ।
प्राप्नुवन्ति दुरात्मानो नरा रूपविपर्ययम् ॥ ४८ ॥

iha duścaritaiḥ ke cit ke cit pūrvakṛtaistathā |
prāpnuvanti durātmāno narā rūpaviparyayam || 48 ||

Evil-minded men suffer disfigurement,—some from evil deeds committed during the present life and others from those committed in former lives.—(48)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

What has been explained above is made clear now.

‘Some from evil deeds committed during the present life’—i.e., by doing forbidden acts in their present birth.

‘By those committed in former lives’—as explained above.

It is this ‘disfigurement,’ as indicative of past sins that is now described in detail.—(48)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Prāyaścittaviveka, (p. 6).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 11.48-52)

[See below.—12.53 et seq.]

Vaśiṣṭha (20.43-44).—‘They quote the following:—“Hear how the bodies of those who, having committed various crimes, died a long time ago, and were horn again, are marked:—A thief will have deformed nails, the murderer of a Brāhmaṇa will he afflicted with white leprosy; he who has drunk wine will have black teeth, and the violator of the Guru’s bed will suffer from skin-diseases.”’

Vaśiṣṭha (20.6).—‘The man with deformed nails or black teeth should perform the Kṛcchra penance of twelve days’ duration.’

Viṣṇu (45.1-33).—‘After having undergone the torments in the hells, and having passed through the animal bodies, the sinners are born as human beings with the following marks:—A criminal of the highest degree shall have leprosy; a slayer of a Brāhmaṇa, consumption; a wine-drinker, black teeth; a stealer of gold (belonging to a Brāhmaṇa), deformed nails; a violator of his spiritual teacher’s bed a disease of the skin; a calumniator, a stinking nose; a malicious informer, stinking breath; a stealer of grain, a limb too little; one who steals by mixing (i.e., by taking good grain and replacing the same amount of bad grain in its stead), a limb too much; a stealer of food, dyspepsia; a stealer of words, dumbness; a stealer of clothes, white leprosy; a stealer of horses, lameness; one who pronounces an execration against a God or a Brāhmaṇa, dumbness; a poisoner, a stammering tongue; an incendiary, madness; one disobedient to a Guru (father), the falling sickness; the killer of a cow, blindness; the stealer of a lamb, the same; one who has extinguished a lamp, blindness with one eye; a seller of tin, chowries, or lead, is born a dyer of cloth; a seller of (horses or other) animals whose foot is not cloven, is born a hunter: one who eats the food of a person born from adulterous intercourse, is born as a man who suffers his mouth to he abused; a thief (of other property than gold), is born a bard; a usurer becoms epileptic; one who eats dainties alone, shall have rheumatics; the breaker of a convention, a bald head; the breaker of a vow of chastity, swelled legs; one who deprives another of his subsistence, shall be poor; one who injures another (without provocation), shall have an incurable illness. Thus according to their particular sins, are men born, marked by evil-signs, sick, blind, hump-backed, halting, one-eyed; others as dwarfs, or deaf, or dumb, feeble-bodied (eunuchs, whitlows, and others). Therefore must penances be performed by all means.’

Yājñavalkya (3.209-215).—‘The Brāhmaṇa slayer becomes consumptive, the wine-drinker has black teeth, the gold stealer has deformed nails; the violator of the Guru’s bed suffers from skin diseases; the stealer of food becomes dyspeptic; the stealer of words, dumb; the mixer of grains has a limb too many; the back-biter has stinking nostrils; the stealer of sesamum becomes the oil-drinking animal; calumniator has stinking mouth; one who has intercourse with another’s wife and one who steals a Brāhmaṇa’s property becomes a Brahmarākṣasa in a desolate forest; those who steal gems are born in low castes; one who steals clothes suffers from white leprosy.’