The Laws of Manu

by The Laws of Manu (retail) (epub)

  End of Chapter 11

  [1] The man who wants descendants goes begging in order to finance his wedding, as in 11.5. The commentators suggest that the ‘man who has given all his property away for the Veda’ has given everything up at a sacrifice or to a teacher.

  [6] This verse, which is almost certainly an interpolation, is rightly omitted from Dave’s edition, as is 11.52, though Bühler and most other editions include them. Both have been retained in this translation, in brackets (indicating their dubious status), in order to facilitate cross-reference to other editions and to Bühler’s critical apparatus.

  [14] The verse as a whole seems to refer to wealthy men of all social classes. The second half of the verse appears to refer to the wealthy man who does not offer a Soma sacrifice.

  [19] Literally, he causes them both to cross over (saṃtārayati), presumably to cross over the ocean of misfortune. One commentator suggests that he delivers the man from whom he takes the money both by saving him the trouble of protecting his wealth and by keeping him from an evil fate after death.

  [21] ‘Him’ refers to the man who takes property under the conditions described in 11.12–19.

  [27] The offering ‘For All Men’ is the vaiśvānarī.

  [33] The Atharva Veda (referred to here as the texts of Atharvan and Angiras) is a collection of magic incantations, some malevolent.

  [36] The priest of the oblation is the hotṛ.

  [41] The ‘Moon-course’ vow is described in 11.217.

  [43] The dangers of hell are what the servant will avoid by paying the priest to do the sacrifice.

  [49] A very similar list of undesirables appears at 3.153, in the list of people not to be invited to a ceremony for the dead.

  [51] The thief of words is not a plagiarist but one who learns the Veda without permission to do so.

  [52] Literally, an adulterer’s body is afflicted with an excess of wind, one of the three humours. There is much confusion in the manuscripts about this verse, and many commentators omit it, as does Dave; it is included here, bracketed, like 11.6. The last line in the version used here reads hiṃsāruciḥ sadā rogī vātāngaḥ pāradārikaḥ.

  [55] These crimes, called pātakas, are more precisely those crimes that cause one to fall (pat) from caste and into hell.

  [60] Selling oneself into slavery is meant here.

  [61] For the marriages of the older and younger brother (parivitti and parivettṛ), see 3.154, 170–72.

  [64] ‘Living off one’s wife’ may also mean ‘living off a woman’. For another pejorative reference to the use of roots, see 10.38.

  [66] The debts may be any debts or the three debts owed to gods, sages, and ancestors. The word for travelling bard, kuśīlava, can also denote an actor, singer, or dancer.

  [68] Some commentators specify that the male homosexual act (‘sticking in the penis’) takes place in the mouth and so forth, others in the anus and so forth.

  [74] ‘Knowledgeable’ may either mean that they know that he is a priest-killer carrying out an act of penance, or that they are archers who know how to shoot well (in battle, some commentators add).

  [75] These sacrifices are the svarjit, gosava, abhijit, viśvajit, trivṛt, and agniṣṭut. Some commentators take ‘Heaven-conquering’ and ‘Triple’ not as separate sacrifices but as adjectives for the sacrifices mentioned after them.

  [76] He walks a hundred yojanas, and a yojana (literally, a ‘yoking’, the distance that one can travel without unyoking the horses) is about ten miles.

  [83] The gods of men are the rulers, and the gods on earth are the priests.

  [92] These are four of the five cow-products. See 11.66.

  [93] The flag presumably has the sign of the wine-shop on it, as in 9.237. The hair-shirt (vālavāsas) is more precisely made from the hair of the tail of a horse or cow.

  [95] Paiṣṭī, the liquor made from rice (which is referred to as anna in 11.94), is the most potent and therefore the worst; but the same rules apply to the other two, one made from sugar or molasses (gauḍi), and the other from honey or from the flowers of the honey-tree (madhvī).

  [101] The club is carried to the king by the thief, as we learn from 8.314–16. The commentators are quite troubled by this verse, which seems to allow for the possibility that the king may kill a priest. They argue variously that the corporal or capital punishment (vadha) is merely a blow, not fatal, or that the text distinguishes between the thief whom the king may kill, who is not in fact a priest, and the thief who is purified by mere inner heat, who is a priest. This latter interpretation is supported by some manuscripts that read ‘or’ in place of ‘but’ (‘or a priest may purify himself by inner heat’).

  [104] The cylinder is said to be shaped in the image of a woman. The guru’s wife may simply be the wife of one’s revered teacher, but may also denote the wife of any closely related and respected male, particularly one’s father. The crime is therefore tantamount to incest.

  [105] Ruin (nirṛti), personified, is a goddess who presides over the southwest.

  [106] The commentators say that this vow (explained in 11.212) expiates incest with one’s father’s wife, or a stepmother (who is, according to some commentators, not among the women to whom 11.104 applies). Some commentators say that it applies only when one has mistaken her for one’s own wife, others that it applies when one does it knowingly, out of lust. The khatvānga club that is often carried by ascetics has a skull on the top, which gives it the shape of a bedpost; it is regarded as one of the weapons of the god Śiva. This symbol connects Śiva with the Lord of Creatures, Prajāpati, said to be the author of this vow, in an appropriate way: Śiva punished Prajāpati for committing incest (with his daughter) by beheading him, and that skull, which stuck fast to Śiva, is the paradigm for the ‘bedpost club’.

  [107] The ‘Moon-course’ vow is defined at 11.217.

  [111] The heroic posture, or vīrāsana, is a yogic position: squatting on one’s thighs with the lower legs crossed over one another.

  [120] The verse (Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 2.18.4) goes, ‘All over me, over Indra, over Bṛhaspati, let the storm gods pour down.’ The Guru is Bṛhaspati, the Guru of the Gods.

  [123] The commentary suggests that the donkey sacrificed in 11.119 supplies the skin.

  [125] The ‘Painful Heating’ vow (sāntapana) is described at 11.213; the ‘Painful’ vow of the Lord of Creatures is described at 11.212.

  [129] See 11.73 and 11.79.

  [133] The commentaries identify the hymn to the waters as ṛg Veda 10.9. See 8.106.

  [134] The phrase ‘to a priest’ has been moved from 11.136 to the beginning of the list, in 11.134. One commentator on this verse says that there are four kinds of impotent men (ṣaṇḍas): a man who has no seed, whose seed is blighted, whose sensory organs do not function, or who manifests both (sets of sexual organs). A ‘small bean’ (māṣaka) is five grains; see 8.135.

  [139] The commentaries explain that the leather bag is given for the killing of a woman of the priestly class, the bow for the woman of the ruling class, the billy-goat for the commoner woman, and the sheep for the servant woman.

  [148] The conch-shell flower, śankhapuṣpi, is the Andropogon Aciculatus.

  [157] The ‘Hot Painful’ vow (taptakṛcchra) is described in 11.215.

  [161] The means of cleansing (śodhanas) might be vows of restoration or physical purgatives.

  [166] The five cow-products are milk, yogurt, butter, and the urine and excrement of a cow.

  [173] He might fall from caste or fall into hell, or both.

  [174] The commentators point out that the female animal might be a mare or a ewe, but not a cow, intercourse with whom would be more severely punished, as the equivalent of violating the guru’s marriage-bed; that the places other than the vagina might be his own wife’s mouth, anus, or hand, and so forth; that ‘in water’ might also mean ‘when having intercourse with a woman in water’.

  [177] The commentaries and translat
ors all take vipraduṣṭa as vi-praduṣṭa, ‘perversely corrupted’ or ‘exceedingly corrupt’ (Bühler), since praduṣṭa occurs alone in the next verse. Yet it is also possible to divide the compound as vipra-duṣṭa, ‘corrupted by a priest’, especially since vipra in that sense has just occurred in the preceding verse and the following verse also refers to a punishment that depends on the class of the seducer.

  [180] The four evil-doers are people who have committed the four major crimes that cause a fall: killing, eating the wrong food, stealing, and having sex with forbidden women.

  [192] The proper time to learn the verse to the sun-god is discussed at 2.38.

  [198] The several-day sacrifice is the ahīna, a Soma sacrifice that may last for between two and twelve days.

  [201] The ‘rows’ are the rows of priests at a ceremony for the dead, which define acceptable society; see 3.151ff. The ‘fragmentary’ (śākala) oblations are those that are accompanied by eight verses (Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā 8.13) of the Sākala school of the Veda.

  [205] ‘Hush!’ (hum) means many things in Sanskrit, including ‘Boo!’, but one commentator on this verse suggests that in this case it means, ‘Be quiet and don’t talk like that.’

  [206] This verse and the next two are slightly different versions of 4.166, 165, and 168.

  [209] The ‘Extra-painful’ vow is described at 11.214.

  [212] This is the kṛcchra vow.

  [213] This is the kṛcchrasāntapana vow, which includes the five cow-products.

  [214] This is the atikṛcchra vow.

  [215] This is the taptakṛcchra vow.

  [216] This is the parāka vow.

  [217] This is the cāndrāyaṇa vow. The ball (piṇḍa) of food is the amount that a rice-eater rolls together with a ball of rice and then swallows, the equivalent of a mouthful; it is also the word for the ball of rice that is offered to the ancestors at the ceremony for the dead.

  [218] The regular ‘Moon-course’ vow is said to be ant-shaped (we might say hour-glass shaped), because the fast days (the lean days) come in the middle of the lunar month. The ‘Barley-middle’ (yavamadhyama) vow is shaped like a rounded barley-corn because the fat days come in the middle of the lunar month.

  [219] This is the yaticāndrāyaṇa vow.

  [220] This is the śiśucāndrāyaṇa vow.

  [222] The Rudras and Maruts are groups of storm gods; the Ādityas and Vasus are groups of solar gods.

  [223] For the three great exclamations, see 2.77–8, 81.

  [226] Several purifying texts from the Veda are specified at 11.250–60.

  [241] The commentators refer to the ‘Tale of the Worm’ and the ‘Conversation with a Dove’ (told in the Mahābhārata at 13.118–20 and 12.141–7, respectively), in which a worm goes through a series of transmigrations and is ultimately Freed, and a male and female dove commit suicide and are reunited in heaven, all through the power of their inner heat.

  [250] These hymns, attributed to the various sages who ‘saw’ them, are ṛg Veda 1.97, 7.80, 10.185 (the māhitra), and 8.95.7–9.

  [251] The first text is ṛg Veda 1.164 (the asya vāmasya), and the ‘Auspicious Intention’ (sivasaṃkalpa) is Vājasaneyī Saṃhitā 32.1–6 or 34.1.

  [252] ṛg Veda 10.88, 10.126, 10.119, and 10.90 (the puruṣa-sūkta).

  [253] ṛg Veda 1.24.14 and 7.89.5.

  [254] ṛg Veda 9.58.

  [255] ṛg Veda 6.74.1–4 and 4.2.4–6. Aryaman is a minor deity closely associated with Varuṇa.

  [256] The verses are ṛg Veda 1.106.1–7. The commentators suggest that the acts forbidden in water might be having sex, emitting urine or excrement, or eating forbidden food.

  [257] For the ‘fragmentary’ Vedic verses see 11.201. The Vedic verse is ṛg Veda 6.51.8.

  [258] The Soma hymns are the whole of the ninth book of the ṛg Veda, sung while the Soma is purified by being strained through a sieve.

  [260] The hymn, ṛg Veda 10.190, is sometimes said to have been revealed to a sage named ‘Error-eraser’ (aghamarṣaṇa).

  [263] The secret texts are the Upaniṣads appended to each Veda.

  [265] The ‘other’ formulas (yajus) are those which are not included in the verses (ṛg) in the ṛg Veda but are found only in the Yajur Veda.

  [266] The three sounds are the elements of ‘Om’.

  CHAPTER 12

  [1] ‘Unerring one, you have described the whole law of the four class (system); now teach us, accurately, the ultimate culmination of the fruits of actions.’ [2] Bhṛgu the descendant of Manu, the soul of religion, said this in reply to the great sages:

  Listen to the final conclusion about the whole performance of actions.

  [3] The action that arises in the mind-and-heart, speech, and the body bears good and bad fruits; the highest, lowest, and middle levels of men’s existences come from their actions. [4] Know that the mind-and-heart sets in motion the body’s (action) here on earth, which is of three kinds and has three bases and ten distinctive marks. [5] The three kinds of mental action are thinking too much about things that belong to others, meditating in one’s mind-and-heart about what is undesirable, and adhering to falsehoods. [6] The four kinds of speech (acts) are verbal abuse, lies, slander of all sorts, and unbridled chatter. [7] The three kinds of bodily (action) are traditionally said to be taking things that have not been given, committing violence against the law, and having sex with another man’s wife. [8] A man experiences in his mind-and-heart the good or bad effects of past actions committed in his mind-and-heart, in his speech what he has committed in his speech, and in his body what he has committed with his body. [9] A man becomes a stationary object as a result of the faults that are the effects of past actions of the body, a bird or wild animal from those of speech, and a member of one of the lowest castes from those of the mind-and-heart. [10] A man is said to have a ‘triple rod’ if he has established in his consciousness the rod that enforces the mind-and-heart, the rod that enforces speech, and the rod that enforces the body. [11] The man who wields this triple rod among all living beings and thoroughly suppresses his lust and anger thereby achieves success.

  [12] They say that the one who causes this (physical) self to act is the knower of the field, but intelligent men say that the one who actually performs the actions is the elemental self. [13] Another internal self that is born with all who have bodies is called the living soul, through which (the knower of the field) knows all happiness and unhappiness in (successive) births. [14] These two, the great one and the knower of the field, endure, thoroughly intermingled with the elements and pervading the one who endures in high and low living beings. [15] Innumerable physical forms go forth out of his body and constantly set high and low living beings in motion.

  [16] After the death of men who have done bad deeds, another solid body, designed to be tortured, is born out of the five elements. [17] When (the living souls) here have suffered with that body the tortures given by Yama, (the bodies) dissolve, each part distributed into its own basic element. [18] And after he has suffered for the faults that are born of attachment to the sensory objects and that result in unhappiness, his stains are erased and he approaches the two who have great energy. [19] Those two together tirelessly watch his religious merit and his evil, for it is through being thoroughly intermingled with that pair that he attains happiness or unhappiness here on earth and after death. [20] If he mostly does right and only a little wrong, he is enveloped in those very elements and experiences happiness in heaven. [21] But if he mostly indulges in wrong and only a little in right, he is abandoned by those elements and experiences the tortures given by Yama. [22] And after the living soul has suffered the tortures given by Yama and his stains are erased, he enters those same five elements again, each part distributed (into its own element). [23] Seeing with his very own intellect these levels of existence of the living soul that result from right and from wrong, a man should always set his mind-and-heart on what is right.

  [24] Know that lucidi
ty, energy, and darkness are the three qualities of the self, through which the great one pervades and endures in all these existences, without exception. [25] Whenever one of these qualities entirely prevails in a body, it makes the particular quality predominant in the embodied (soul). [26] Lucidity is traditionally regarded as knowledge, darkness as ignorance, and energy as passion and hate; this is their form, that enters and pervades all living beings. [27] Among these (three), a person should recognize as lucidity whatever he perceives in his self as full of joy, something of pure light which seems to be entirely at peace. [28] But he should recognize as energy whatever is full of unhappiness and gives his self no joy, something which is hard to oppose and constantly seduces embodied creatures. [29] And he should recognize as darkness whatever is full of confusion, undifferentiated, whatever is sensual and cannot be understood through reason or intelligence.

  [30] Now I will also explain, leaving nothing out, the highest, middle, and hindmost fruits that result from these three qualities.

  [31] The recitation of the Veda, inner heat, knowledge, purification, suppression of the sensory powers, the rites of duty, and meditation on the soul are the mark of the quality of goodness. [32] Delight in enterprises, instability, persistence in doing what should not be done, and continual indulgence in the sensory objects are the mark of the quality of energy. [33] Greed, sleep, incontinence, cruelty, atheism, losing jobs, habitually asking for hand-outs, and carelessness are the mark of the quality of darkness.

  [34] The following should be regarded as the marks of the qualities in a nutshell, in order, as each of these three qualities occurs in the three (time periods).