Manava Dharmashastra 3.191

3.191

na pitryaṃ karma daivātkarmaṇo nyūnaṃ draṣṭavyam | api tu tadeva pradhānatamam | yato janmajyeṣṭhāḥ pitaro devānām | tathāhi ṛṣibhyaḥ pitara utpannāḥ pitṛbhyo devā ityeṣa sṛṣṭikramaḥ | devebhyo'nyatsarvaṃ jagat caraṃ jaṃgamaṃ sthāṇu sthāvaraṃ anupūrvaśaḥ, prathame'dhyāye uktaḥ kramaḥ | atikrānto'rthavādasampātaḥ |

From the sages were born the Pitṛs, Gods and Men; and from the gods the entire world, moveable and immoveable, in due order.—(201)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The rite in honour of the Pitṛs should not be looked upon as inferior to that in honour of the gods; in fact, the former is the more important of the two; because by birth, the Pitṛs are elder than the gods. For, the order of creation is that the Pitṛs were born from the sages, and the gods were born from the Pitṛs, and from the gods, the whole of the rest of the world—‘moveable’—animate—as well as ‘immoveable’—inanimate.

‘In due order’—the order having been already described under Discourse I.

The entire series of purely laudatory descriptions has now come to an end.—(201)