Manava Dharmashastra 3.121

3.121

anṛcāṃ anṛgarthavidām | upalakṣaṇam—yato'nṛcānāṃ prāptireva nāsti, śrotriyāyaiveti niyamāt | samāsāntaḥ chāndasatvānna kṛtaḥ, vṛttānurodhācca | evaṃ hi paṭhanti | "api māṣaṃ maṣaṃ kuryānna tu chando vicālayet" iti | athavā anṛcā iti prathamabahuvacanam | 'anṛcāḥ sahasraṃ yatra bhuñjate' iti sambandhaḥ | yathā sahasraṃ gāva iti | eka prītastarpito bhojitā mantravidvedārthavit—sarvāṃstān anūcānarhati svīkaroti ātmasātkaroti, tairabhedamāpadyate | abhede ca yatteṣu sahasreṣu bhojiteṣu phalaṃ tadekasminnavāpyate ityavagatirutpadyate | nindyeyamaviduṣo vidvadvidhyarthā | na punaḥ sahasrasaṃkhyātānāmekasya ca samaphalatvamucyate | viduṣāṃ vidhānādaviduṣāṃ prāptireva nāsti | athāpyasati viduṣi 'śrotriyāyaive'tyanena pākṣikī aviduṣo'pi prāptirāśaṃkyeta, tathāpi vistarasya pratiṣedho mā bhūdityeto yathāśrutārthasambhavaḥ |

Where one thousand persons ignorant of the Veda eat, all those a single man learned in the Veda, on being satisfied, absorbs, in point of merit.—(131)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Anṛcām (Anṛcām?)’, ‘ignorant of the Veda,’—those who do not know the meaning of the Vedic verses.

This is only by way of illustration; since there is no possibility of persons ignorant of the Veda being fed; because of the restriction that the food shall be offered only to one learned in the Veda. The affix at the end of this compound has been dropped because of the term being Vedic, and also because of the exigencies of metre. They say—‘one had better read maṣa in place of māṣa rather than distort the metre.’

Or, we may read ‘anṛcā’ in the Nominative Plural; the construction being ‘thousand persons ignorant, &c.;’ just as we have the phrase ‘thousand bulls.’

‘A single man learned in the Veda’—knowing the meaning of the Veda—‘on being satisfied’—i.e., fed—‘absorbs all those’ ignorant persons; i.e., becomes identified with them; and in face of this identity, the result that might accrue from the feeding of those thousands would be obtained by the feeding of a single learned man; this is the sense got at. from the text.

This deprecation of the ignorant person is meant to be a praise of the learned man; and it does not really mean that the feeding of a single man produces results equal to those produced by feeding a thousand. Further, inasmuch as the scriptures lay down the feeding of the learned only, there is no possibility of the ignorant ever being fed. It may be that people might think that, in the absence of the fully learned man (thoroughly versed in the Veda), the feeding of the man(learned in the Veda’ (who is comparatively ignorant) laid down in verse 128 above permits, under certain conditions, the feeding of ignorant persons also; and in view of this, for the purpose of preventing the prohibition of feeding a ‘large company’ from applying to the case of ignorant persons also, the present text may be taken in its direct sense (whereby the feeding of thousands of ignorant persons is permitted).—(131)