[23] The barbarians (mlecchas) are people who cannot speak Sanskrit and are not Aryans.
[27] This verse refers to six of the twelve life-cycle rituals. The first three, the oblations for the embryo, are the ceremonies called (1) garbhādhāna (‘conception of the embryo’, just referred to in 2.26 as the infusion of the semen), (2) puṃsavana (‘bringing forth a male child’), and (3) sīmantonnayana (‘parting the mother’s hair’, in the fourth, sixth, or eighth month of her first pregnancy). The fourth life-cycle ritual is the birth rite (4: jātakarman); the eighth is the ceremonial haircut (8) (cūdā), and the ninth the initiation (9) (upanayana), in which, for a priest, the belt of rushes is made of muñja grass, Saccharum Sara or Munja, a tall grass used in making baskets (see 2.42). The fifth and seventh rituals (5: nāmakarman, the name-giving, and 7: annaprāśana, eating-food) are described in 2.30 and 2.34, and the sixth (6: niṣkramaṇa, going out) in 2.34. The last three ceremonies are the final ceremonial haircut (10: keśānta, described in 2.65), the homecoming of the Vedic student (11: samāvartana, in 2.108), and marriage (12: vivāha, 3.20–44 and 9.7– 100.)
[28] The triple learning (trividyā) is the knowledge of the three Vedas.
[29] The gold may be powdered, or a gold spoon from which the child eats the honey and butter, or simply gold that the child may touch. The Vedic verses are chanted during the ceremony.
[38] The verse to the sun-god, more precisely to Savitṛ, an aspect of the sun, known as the sāvitrī or the gāyatrī is ṛg Veda 3.62.10. It is taught to every twice-born man on his initiation and is recited daily (see 2.77–82, 11.95, etc.).
[39] An outlaw, literally a ‘Man of (Unorthodox) Vow’, is a vrātya, defined at 10.20.
[40] The Vedic (brāhmya) bonds would involve teaching the Veda or sacrificing; bonds of sex (yauna, literally ‘of the womb’) would involve marriage and procreation.
[41] The commentators specify that the priest wears the black antelope, the ruler the gazelle, and so forth, and that the skins are to supply the upper garments, while the hemp, linen, and wool are what the lower garments, such as the loincloth, are to be made of. The observant reader will note that hemp, here assigned to the priest’s lower garment, is elsewhere used for the belt of a commoner (2.42) and the sacrificial thread of a ruler (2.44).
[42] The ruler’s hemp fibre is mūrvā grass (Sanseviera Roxburghiana), used only for bowstrings.
[43] The sacrificial grass is kúsa, the ‘stone-tipped’ grass is aśmantaka, and the coarse grass balbaja (Eleusine Indica). The commentaries suggest that even though only the lack of rushes is specified, the use of the plural in what follows indicates that this rule applies to the possible lack of all three preferred grasses for all three classes.
[44] For ways of wearing the initiatory thread, see 2.63.
[45] The wood-apple is the bilva (Aegle Marmelos); the ‘straw-eating’ plant is the pālāśa (Butea Frondosa); the banyan is the vaṭa (Ficus Indica), and the acacia the khadira (Acacia Catechu); the palm here is pīlu (Careya Arborea or Salvadora Persica) and the fig is udumbara (Ficus Glomerata).
[48] He goes around the fire clockwise, literally ‘to the right’ (pradakṣiṇam), which means both keeping one’s right side towards the object or person being honoured in this way and proceeding from the east to the south (also designated by the term dakṣiṇa), which is on the right, since one names the directions while facing east.
[58] These hollows of the hand are called ‘fords’ because they are used to collect water, as in the ford of a river. Ka (literally, ‘Who?’) is another name for the Lord of Creatures.
[60] The commentators suggest that the seat of the soul is the heart or the navel.
[63] The normal way to wear the initiatory thread (upavītin) is with the right hand raised, i.e. with the initiatory thread under the right hand, resting on the left shoulder. It is worn ‘to the front’ (or to the east – since one faces the east – prācīnāvītin), that is, in reverse, with the left hand raised (i.e. with the thread under the left hand and resting on the right shoulder), at the ceremony for the dead. And it is worn ‘down’ (nivītin) around the neck to worship the sages.
[68] Where we might say that the initiation symbolizes a rebirth, the text says that it manifests a real birth, since a man is not regarded as born at all until he is initiated.
[76] ‘A’, ‘u’, and ‘m’ combine to form ‘Om’. The three exclamations (vyāhṛtis) are the names of the first three worlds: earth, atmosphere, and heaven.
[77] This verse is the sāvitrī, which begins, tat savitur vareṇyam; see 2.38. The verse is composed of three sets of syllables literally called feet, pādas.
[84] This verse turns on an untranslatable pun: akṣara means both ‘syllable’ and ‘not-perishing’.
[85] The sacrifice according to the rules (vidhiyajña), or the regular Vedic sacrifice, would include the new-and-full-moon sacrifices, the daily fire sacrifice and so on.
[86] The domestic sacrifices (pākayajñas) are the first four of the great sacrifices (mahāyajñas; see 3.70), omitting the sacrifice to ultimate reality.
[87] The commentators suggest that ‘befriending (all creatures)’ implies a dedication to non-violence and a refusal to sacrifice animals, thus emphasizing the advantages of the merely mental sacrifice.
[96] A commentator suggests that understanding here means understanding the mistakes that result from indulging in sensory objects.
[99] If a whole hide of a goat, for instance, is used for the water-bag, there would be four holes where the four legs were attached; if only one of these breaks open, even if all the others remain sealed (as one commentator points out), the whole thing is emptied.
[100] ‘Harnessing (energies)’ is, literally, yoga.
[105] This may apply to occasions such as pollution after a death, when other rituals are forbidden.
[106] The extended sacrifice is a sattra, in this case a brahmasattra, and ‘Vaṣaṭ!’ is an exclamation used to mark the end of a recitation. The meaning of the final phrase seems to be that even when the recitation is brought to a close by some interruption, that interruption itself (one commentator suggests that it might be the sound of a thunderburst) is regarded as a satisfactory ‘Amen!’.
[110] This verse and the next two may refer to general conversation and knowledge, but in the present context more probably refer to explaining the Veda.
[124] The word here translated as ‘You!’ is ‘Bhoḥ’, originally a vocative from the polite form of the second person pronoun.
[131] The guru’s wife may simply be the wife of one’s revered teacher, but the term may also denote the wife of any closely related and respected male, particularly one’s father.
[140] The ritual texts are the kalpasūtras and the secret texts are the Upaniṣads or other esoteric explications of the Veda. The teacher is the ācārya.
[141] The instructor is the upādhyāya.
[143] The ceremony of preparing the sacred fires is the agnyādheya; the domestic sacrifices are the pākayajñas, the ‘Praise of Fire’ is the Soma sacrifice called the agniṣṭoma, and the officiating priest is the ṛtvij.
[145] This verse expresses a view of the relative importance of parents and teachers that differs from the views expressed in the verses that follow. Manu may be quoting two different traditions, or stating first the ‘other’ view (the pūrvapakṣa in Indian logic) and then his preferred view.
[148] ‘Crossing to the far shore of the Veda’ (vedapāraga) is a metaphor for mastering one entire branch (śākhā) of a Veda.
[149] ‘Here’ may mean in this world or in this text.
[153] Some commentators suggest that ‘Little Child’ (śiśu) or ‘Poet’ (kavi) is the name of the sage, while others take the words as nouns, his attributes. This story is told in the Pañcaviṃśa Brāhmaṇa 13.2.24 and in the Mahābhārata 9.50. The Brāhmaṇa version goes like this: A little child of the Angirases was a maker of Vedic verses among makers of Vedic verses. He used
to address his ancestors as ‘Little Sons’. The ancestors said to him, ‘You act irreligiously when you call us, who are your fathers, “Little Sons”.’ He answered, ‘I am the one who is the father, since I am the maker of Vedic verses.’ They asked the gods about this, and the gods said, ‘He really is the father who is a maker of Vedic verses.’ So he triumphed over them.
[154] The man who has learnt the Veda with all of its subsidiary texts is called an anūcāna.
[155] That is, only servants count their seniority in terms of the time elapsed since their birth.
[160] ‘The end of the Veda’ (vedānta) here may designate the ‘far shore’, i.e. the completion, of Vedic study or the texts at the end of the Veda, i.e. the Upaniṣads.
[172] The refreshment for the dead is the svadhā.
[176] The refreshing libation is the tarpaṇa.
[181] This verse is Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 1.30.
[185] The commentators gloss ‘indicted’ (abhiśasta) as fallen from caste or having committed a major crime.
[187] See 11.119.
[189] Some commentators suggest that ‘like a sage’ means ‘like a hermit’, limiting him to small amounts of food that grows wild.
[190] ‘This ritual activity’ (karman) may refer to the general rule in 2.188 or to the exception in 2.189.
[193] The hand that is bared is the right hand, more precisely the right arm, which is kept outside the upper garment.
[199] The commentators say that he should not mention his guru’s name without adding a term of respect.
[201] The commentaries distinguish speaking ill (parivāda) from reproach (ninda) by saying that the former accuses someone of an existent fault, and the latter of a non-existent one; but the use of ninda throughout this text to designate correct blame, directed by good people against wrong-doers, seems to indicate the opposite. Some suggest that this verse, like the previous one, refers merely to the crime of listening to slander or reproach, not actually perpetrating it. The animal transformations may be supposed, as usual, to take place in the next rebirth. ‘Living off his teacher’ seems to mean eating the best food before giving it to the teacher.
[205] This verse turns on the double meaning of guru, which designates both teachers and venerable people, including parents.
[206] ‘Those who are born of the same womb’ (svayoniṣu) are identified by the commentators as various older males in the family.
[216] The rules are given at 2.129–31.
[219] Some commentators, perhaps looking ahead to the next verse, say that this means that he should not sleep in a village; others, that he should be carrying out his duties outside the village at the two twilights.
[220] The words ‘for pleasure’ and ‘unknowingly’ (kāmacāratas and avijñānāt) have several different possible meanings in this verse. In a general way, they designate the two possible conditions for any error: intentional and unintentional, or knowing and unknowing, which can refer to sleeping (whether he accidentally falls asleep or willingly takes to his bed) and/or to the course of the sun (whether or not he knows that the sun is rising and/or setting while he is in bed). In this particular case, the terms seem primarily to mean that he stays in bed ‘for pleasure’ not (as one commenttor points out) because he is sick, but because he wants to (or even, perhaps, for the sake of lust).
[223] The commentators strain to make sense of this extraordinary, and apparently heretical, verse in various ways. Some suggest that the woman is the wife of the teacher and that the ‘lower born’ (avaraja) is simply someone younger than the student, while others specify that nothing contrary to the teachings should ever be done, even in this instance. ‘He’ almost certainly means the student of the Veda, who is apparently here allowed to imitate certain of the actions of those who are not twice-born, if those actions are ‘better’ (śreyas – better than those prescribed for him?) or even if he simply wants to.
[224] The verse argues, contrary to those who would privilege one or two of the three elements of the triple path (trivarga), that the best thing (śreyas) is the triad as a whole.
[227] The word for ‘redemption’ (niṣkṛti) is the same for the repayment of a debt and the expiatory payment for an error.
[228] The trouble that one takes to please these three is equated with the pain that one undergoes in generating inner heat; more particularly, it is suggested that the reward for serving them is equal to the reward for generating inner heat.
[229] He should not, without their permission, undertake the duties (dharma) of actually generating heat or going on pilgrimage, for example, which would interfere with his service to them.
[231] The three basic fires of a man with three fires (āhitāgni) are the householder’s fire (the gārhapatya), into which the regular daily sacrifices are offered (this is the only fire of a man who has only one sacred fire, an ekāgni); the southern fire (dakṣiṇa), into which offerings to the ancestors are usually made; and the āhavanīya, into which oblations to the gods are usually made.
[236] One commentator points out that he need not tell them of anything that he may be contemplating if it will inconvenience them, since (as 2.229 has pointed out) they will not give him permission to do it.
[238] The final phrase may also mean ‘jewels and women’, as in verse 2.240.
[242] ‘Endlessly’ (atyantikam) means, according to the commentaries, that he takes a vow to remain a chaste student of the Vedas for his whole life (a naiṣṭhika) and spends it with his guru.
[247] The ‘co-feeding relative’ is a sapiṇḍa, literally ‘one who shares the same balls’, a person related in such a way as to make funeral offerings of balls of rice (piṇḍas) to the same male ancestors. See 5.59–79.
[249] The supreme condition (paraṃ sthānam) is probably yet another term for the world of ultimate reality.
CHAPTER 3
[1] The vow for studying the three Vedas with a guru is for thirty-six years, or half of that, or a quarter of that, or whenever the undertaking comes to an end. [2] When, unswerving in his chastity, he has learned the Vedas, or two Vedas, or even one Veda, in the proper order, he should enter the householder stage of life. [3] When he is recognized as one who has, by fulfilling his own duties, received the legacy of the Veda from his father, he should first be seated on a couch, adorned with garlands, and honoured with (an offering made from the milk of) a cow.
[4] When he has received his guru’s permission and bathed and performed the ritual for homecoming according to the rules, a twice-born man should marry a wife who is of the same class and has the right marks. [5] A woman who is neither a co-feeding relative on her mother’s side nor belongs to the same lineage (of the sages) on her father’s side, and who is a virgin, is recommended for marriage to twice-born men. [6] When a man connects himself with a woman, he should avoid the ten following families, even if they are great, or rich in cows, goats, sheep, property, or grain: [7] a family that has abandoned the rites, or does not have male children, or does not chant the Veda; and those families in which they have hairy bodies, piles, consumption, weak digestion, epilepsy, white leprosy, or black leprosy.
[8] A man should not marry a girl who is a redhead or has an extra limb or is sickly or has no body hair or too much body hair or talks too much or is sallow; [9] or who is named after a constellation, a tree, or a river, or who has a low-caste name, or is named after a mountain, a bird, a snake, or has a menial or frightening name. [10] He should marry a woman who does not lack any part of her body and who has a pleasant name, who walks like a goose or an elephant, whose body hair and hair on the head is fine, whose teeth are not big, and who has delicate limbs. [11] A wise man will not marry a woman who has no brother or whose father is unknown, for fear that she may be an appointed daughter or that he may act wrongly.
[12] A woman of the same class is recommended to twice-born men for the first marriage; but for men who are driven by desire, these are the women, in progressively descending order: [13] According to tra
dition, only a servant woman can be the wife of a servant; she and one of his own class can be the wife of a commoner; these two and one of his own class for a king; and these three and one of his own class for a priest. [14] Not a single story mentions a servant woman as the wife of a priest or a ruler, even in extremity. [15] Twice-born men who are so infatuated as to marry women of low caste quickly reduce their families, including the descendants, to the status of servants. [16] A man falls when he weds a servant woman, according to Atri and to (Gautama) the son of Utathya, or when he has a son by her, according to Śaunaka, or when he has any children by her, according to Bhṛgu. [17] A priest who climbs into bed with a servant woman goes to hell; if he begets a son in her, he loses the the status of priest. [18] The ancestors and the gods do not eat the offerings to the gods, to the ancestors, and to guests that such a man makes with her, and so he does not go to heaven. [19] No redemption is prescribed for a man who drinks the saliva from the lips of a servant woman or is tainted by her breath or begets a son in her.
[20] Now learn, in summary, these eight ways of marrying women, that are for all four classes, for better and for worse, here on earth and after death: [21] the marriages named after Brahmā, the gods, the sages, the Lord of Creatures, the demons, the centaurs, the ogres, and, eighth and lowest, the ghouls. [22] I will explain to you all about which one is right for each class, and the virtues and vices of each, and their advantages and disadvantages for progeneration. [23] It should be understood that the first six, as they are listed in order, are right for a priest, the last four for a ruler, and these same four, with the exception of the ogre marriage, for a commoner or a servant. [24] The poets say that the first four are recommended for a priest, only one, the ogre marriage, for a ruler, and the demon marriage for a commoner and a servant. [25] But here, three of the (last) five are right, while two – those of the ghouls and the demons – are traditionally regarded as wrong and are never to be performed. [26] Two of the marriages mentioned above, those according to the centaurs and the ogres, are traditionally regarded as right for rulers, whether they are used separately or combined.
The Laws of Manu Page 12