Manava Dharmashastra 2.220

2.220

atredaṃ prāyaścittaṃ caret | brahmacāriṇaṃ śayānaṃ nidrāvaśaṃ gatam abhyudiyāt svenodayenābhivyāptadoṣaṃ kuryāt | 'abhirabhāge' iti karmapravacanīyatvam | tato dvitīyā śayānamiti | itthaṃ bhūtaṃ supramitilakṣaṇaṃ vā svāpakāle yadyudyeta | japannupavaseddinam | kecidāhuḥ | "prātaratikrame dinaṃ japoṣavāsau, rātrau tu bhojanam, paścimātikrame tu rātrau japoṣavāsau, prātarbhojanamiti | dinaśabdaḥ pradarśanārthaḥ |" gautamavacanaṃ cāpyudāharanti | "tiṣṭhedaharabhuñjāno'bhyastamitaśca rātriṃ japansāvitrimiti |" ( 23 | 21 )
tadyuktam | ubhayatrāpi dinaiva prāyaścittaṃ yuktam | dinaśabdasya pradarśanārthatve pramāṇābhāvāt | na hyasya tatsāpekṣasya svārthapratipādanam | nirapekṣaṃ caitat | tasmāddvikalpo yuktaḥ | tatra yasya sarvāṃ rātriṃ jāgrato na vyādhiḥ pravartate sa rātrau japiṣyati, anyastu dinaiva |
japaśca gautamavacanātsāvitryā eva | "nanvatra kathaṃ gautamaḥ pramāṇīkriyate ?" ucyate | sāpekṣamidaṃ vākyaṃ japediti, japanīyasyānirdeśāt | satyāmapekṣāyāṃ śrutyantarād yuktā viśeṣāvagatiḥ | iha tu kālasya nirdeśaḥ | nāsti kālāntaraṃ pratyapekṣeti na gautamo'pekṣyate | athavā sandhyātikrame prāyaścittābhidhānātsāvitrījapaḥ siddha eva | yuktaṃ ca— sāvitryāstu paraṃ nāstīti |
kāmacārataḥ | jñātvaiva sandhyākāle yaḥ svapiti | avijñānāt | cirasuptasya sandhyākālo'yaṃ vartata ityanavabodho'vijñānam | etaduktaṃ bhavati | icchayā pramādakṛte cātikrame etadeva prāyaścittam | yaḥ punarabhyuditānastamitasandhyāmatikrāmati tasya prāyaścittamabhojanaṃ—nityānāṃ karmaṇāṃ samatikrama iti |
athavā yaḥ kāmacāreṇa śāstrātikramaṇaṃ karoti tasya tadavijñānameva |

If the sun should rise or set while he is still sleeping, either intentionally or unintentionally, he should fast during the day, reciting. (the Sāvitrī).—(220)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
In connection with what has gone before one should perform the following expiatory rite.

If while the student is still sleeping, the sun should rise and thereby make him incur sin.—‘Abhi’ is a preposition according to Pāṇini’s Sūtra ‘abhirabhāge’; and hence we have the accusative ending in ‘śayanam.’—The meaning is that if while the student is sleeping, the sun should rise, then he should fast during the day.

Some people oífer the following explanation:—“If the offence is committed in the morning, the reciting and fasting are to be done during the day, food being taken at night; while if the offence is committed in the evening, the reciting and fasting are to be done during the night, food being taken next morning. So that the term ‘day’ is purely illustrative.” And in support of their view they quote the words of Gautama (23.21)—‘He should go without food during the day, and if the sun sets before him he should fast during the night, reciting the Sāvitrī.’

This however is not right. In both cases the expiatory rite should be performed during the day; specially as there is no authority for regarding the term ‘day’ of the text as illustrative; as the term ‘day’ does not have its denotation dependent upon that of the term ‘night’; it is entirely independent. Hence the right meaning appears to he that there should be option; that is, if the person is one who will not fall ill by keeping up the whole night, he might do it during the night; while others would do it during the day.

That the ‘reciting’ is of the Sāvitrī, we gather from the words of Gautama (quoted above).

“How can Gautama be quoted as authority on this point?”

As a matter of fact, the verb ‘should recite’ is incomplete, since it is not mentioned what is to be recited. And when there is such incompleteness, it is only right that the missing detail should be filled in from other scriptural sources.

But what the term ‘day’ mentions is the time; and this does not stand in need of any other time, so that there is no need for calling in the help of Gautama.

Or, the right explanation may be that, since the present verse prescribes the expiatory rite to be performed on the omission of the twilight prayers, the reciting of the SācUrī eorties in naturally; it has been declared above (2.88) that ‘there is nothing higher than the Sāvitrī.’

‘Intentionally;’—i.e., who knowingly sleeps in the evening.

‘Unintentionally;’—when he has been sleeping for a long time and fails to perceive the advent of evening; this is what is meant by ‘absence of intention.’ The sense of all this is as follows:—When the omission is intentional and due to careless-ṇess, it is necessary to perform the expiatory rite here prescribed; he who omits the prayers at sun-set and sun-rise, for him the expiatory rite has been prescribed as ‘fasting,’ which has to be done at the neglect of all compulsory duties.

Or, he who intentionally transgresses the scriptural ordinance, this also is ‘ignorance’ on his part.—(220)