Manava Dharmashastra 2.38

2.38

evaṃ tāvanmukhyakāmyānupanayanakālāvuktau | idānīṃ piturabhāve vyādhyādinā vā kathañcidanupanīte māṇavake kālātipattāvanupaneyatā prāptā, satyapi kālasyāṅgattve tadabhāve'dhikāranivṛtteḥ | yathā sāyamprataḥikālātipattāvagnihotrasyākaraṇe | ato vihitakālavyatirekeṇa pratiprasavārthamidamārabhyate |
yāvatṣoḍaśaṃ varṣaṃ garbhādārabhya tāvadbrāhmaṇasyopanayanārhatā na nivarttate | sāvitrīśabdena tadanuvacanasādhanamupanayanākhyaṃ karma lakṣyate | nātivarttate nātikrāntakālaṃ bhavatītyarthaḥ |
evamā dvāviṃśātkṣatrabandhoḥ kṣatriyajātīyasyetyarthaḥ | bandhuśabdo'yaṃ kvacitkutsāyāṃ pravarttate, yattvaṃ kathaṃ vettha brahmabandhaviti | jātivacanaḥ yathā “grāmatā janatā caiva bandhutā ca sahāyatā | mahendrasyāpyagamyā'sau bhūmibhāgabhujāṃ kutaḥ ||” | dravyavacano “jātyantāccha bandhunīti” ( pā0 sū0 5|
ā caturviṃśaterviśaḥ | prāpto'pyatra pūraṇapratyayo vṛttānurodhānna kṛtaḥ, pratīyate tu tadarthaḥ | na hi samudāyaviṣayāyāścaturviṃśatisaṅkhyāyā avadhitvena sambhavaḥ | tadavayavastu caturviṃśo bhavati saṃvatsaro'vadhiḥ |
āṅamabhividhau vyācakṣate |
liṅgadarśanaṃ codāharanti | “gāyatryā brāhmaṇamupanayīta, triṣṭubhā rājanyam, jagatyā vaiśyam” iti | eteṣāṃ ca chandasāmiyatā kālena dvau pādau pūryate | tāvantaṃ kālaṃ balavanti na tyajanti svāśrayabhūtānvarṇān | tṛtīye tu pāde'pakrānte gatarasānyativayāṃsi nyūnasāmarthyāni bhavanti samāptimupayānti | yathā “pañcāśatā sthaviro manuṣyaḥ” iti | ataśca naitena vayamupāsitānīti tyajanti taṃ varṇam | tato ‘na gāyatro brāhmaṇo, na traiṣṭubho rājanyo, na jāgato vaiśya’ iti |
savitā devatā yasyā ṛcaḥ sā sāvitrī; sā ca gāyatrī draṣṭavyā pradarśitā, gṛhyācca | evaṃ kṣatriyasya triṣṭup sāvitrī ‘ākṛṣṇeneti’ | vaiśyasya jagatī “viśvā rūpāṇīti” |

For the Brāhmaṇa the Sāvitrī does not lapse till the sixteenth year; for the Kṣatriya till the twenty-second year; and for the Vaiśya till the twenty-fourth year.—(38)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
For the Initiatory Rite, the principal as well as the optional time have been prescribed. From this it would seem that if, on account of the death of the father, or by reason of illness and such other causes, the boy remains uninitiated and the prescribed time has gone by,—he becomes unfit, for initiation; this idea being countenanced by the faot that, even though the prescribed time is a secondary factor in the rite, yet on the lapse of that time, the performer’s title to the performance ceases; just as we find in the case of omission of the Agnihotra -offerings after the prescribed morning and evening have gone by. It is with a view to this that the present verse propounds an exception to the general rule, and lays down the necessity of performing the rite even after the passing off of the prescribed time.

Till the end of the sixteenth year after conception, the Brāhmaṇa’s title to the Initiatory Bite does not cease. The term ‘Sāvitrī’ in the text stands for the ‘Rite of Initiation,’ which is the means whereby the teaching of the is accomplished. ‘Does not lapse,’ i.e., does not become out of date.

Similarly ‘for the Kṣatriya till the twenty-second year,’—i.e., for the person belonging to the Kṣatriya caste. Tho term ‘bandhu’ is used (a) sometimes in a deprecatory sense; e.g., in such passages as—‘how doth thou know this. O Brahma-bandhu! (wretched Brāhmaṇa)?’;—(b) sometimes it is used in the sense of ‘family’; e.g., in the passage—‘the possession of a number of villages, the presence of a large following, extensive family-connections (), and alliances,—these are not to be trifled with even by Indra himself; what to say of persons possessing only parts of the earth!’;—(c) in some cases it also means ‘substance’; e.g., in Pāṇiṇi’s Sutra (5.4.9)—‘a word ending with the term jāṭi takes the affix ca, when it denotes bandhu (i.e., a substance belonging to a particular class).’ In the present context the first two meanings of the term ‘bandhu’ being inapplicable, we take it in the third sense.

The nominal affix (ḍaṭ) in the term ‘dvāviṃśaḥ’ means that which completes the number twenty-two, i.e., the twenty-second.

‘For the Vaiśya till the twenty-fourth year’.—Here also though the presence of the ‘ḍaṭ’-affix implying completion was necessary, yet it has not been used in view of metrical contingencies; but the sense is there all the same. That this must be so is proved by the fact that the number ‘twenty-four,’ which denotes the entire lot of twenty-four years, could never form the limit of anything; while tine ‘twenty-fourth year' which is one part of the ‘twenty-four,’ can very well form the limit.

People explain the particle ‘ā’ as denoting inclusion.

In support of what is said in this verse people cite the Vedic text—‘The Brāhmaṇa should be initiated with the Gāyatrī, the Kṣatriya with the and the Vaiśya with the Jagatī’ [the Gāyatrī metre containing 24, three times eight, the Tṛṣtup 33, three times eleven, and the Jagatī, 48, four times twelve, syllables]; the ages spoken of in the text (16, 22 and 24) suffice to complete two quarters of each of the three metres; up till then the metres retain their force and do ṇot abandon the castes that form their receptacles; when however the third quarter has passed, they lose their essence, become aged and having their force reduced, they disappaer, just as the man becomes old at 50 (which represents two quarters of his life of 100 years). It is for this reason that the said metres abandon their respective castes, when they find that they have not been studied by them; and it is thus that (after the said ages) the Brāhmaṇa ceases to be ‘related to the Gāyatrī,’ the Kṣatriya ceases to be ‘related to the Triṣṭup’ and the Vaiśya ceases to be ‘related to the Jagatī.’