Verse 12.98

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

शब्दः स्पर्शश्च रूपं च रसो गन्धश्च पञ्चमः ।
वेदादेव प्रसूयन्ते प्रसूतिर्गुणकर्मतः ॥ ९८ ॥

śabdaḥ sparśaśca rūpaṃ ca raso gandhaśca pañcamaḥ |
vedādeva prasūyante prasūtirguṇakarmataḥ || 98 ||

Sound, touch, colour, taste, and odour as the fifth, proceed from the Veda; their production being due to the ‘secondary rites.’—(98)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Sound and the other objects of experience, which are also the means of pleasure, are known through the Veda. It is by the performance of Vedic rites that the pleasure of hearing music is secured;—and if one neglects those rites, he becomes condemned to the hearing of sounds unpleasant to the ear;—Sound and the other qualities, and the bodily organs apprehending these all owe their existence to the Veda. This is what is meant by the assertion that they ‘proceed from the Veda’; which does not mean that Veda is the material cause out of which these things are made.

This same idea is further explained by the sentence—‘their production is due to the secondary rites.’—The ‘production’—birth, of sound and other things—‘is due to the secondary rites’— Rites directly conducive to such results as Heaven and the like are called ‘primary rites,’ while those minor ones which bring about such minor results us sound and the rest, are ‘secondary rites’; to the latter category belongs, the Citrā Sacrifice.

‘Prasūterguṇadharmataḥ’ is another reading. In this reading ‘guṇa’ stands for the qualities of Sattva, Rajas and Tamas;—‘dharma’ for modification;—‘prasūti’ for the disturbance of equilibrium, excess, extension; and the meaning is that Veda is the cause of the extension of the operations of the qualities of Sattva and the rest;—the Veda being regarded as the cause of all this, as it is all due: to spiritual agencies.

There are several other curious readings, which we do not note, as they are useless.—(98)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

‘Prasūtirguṇakarmataḥ’.—An obscure word, the different readings for which disgusted even Medhātithi. For the various explanations see Buhler.