Manava Dharmashastra 5.6

5.6

vṛkṣakoṭarastrāveṇa hetvantareṇa vā bahiryanmūlaskandhaphalapalāśaśākhākusumavyatiriktaṃ vṛkṣalagnaṃ jāyate sa vṛkṣaniryāśaḥ | lohitagrahaṇātkarpūrādīnāmapratiṣedhaḥ | vraścanācchedanādyeṣāṃ prabhavo janma | evaṃ vṛkṣāderyatkapraveśā ye tatraiva jāyante teṣāmalohitānāmapratiṣedhaḥ | śeluḥ śleṣmātakaḥ prasiddho vaidyakādiśāstrebhyaḥ | na tu sutasya kṣīrasya santānikā, aprasiddhatvāt | yattu "pīyūṣasāhacaryātsantānikā yukteti", -bhavati sāhacaryaṃ viśeṣaheturubhayatra prayoge sati, na punaḥ sāhacaryamadṛṣṭaprayogāṇāṃ prayogajñāpakam | gavyaṃ ca | gavyagrahaṇānmāhiṣāderapratiṣedhaḥ | anādyamagnimātrasaṃyogātpiṇḍībhūtamanāsaktaṃ ca | sadyaḥprasūtāyā goḥ kṣīraṃ 'pīyūṣa'śabdenocyate | "nanu ca kṣīrasya savikārasya daśāhaṃ cāmedhyatāṃ vakṣyati | tricaturāṇi vā'hāni tādṛśaṃ kṣīraṃ bhavati" | satyam | yadi kathaṃcitkasyā api daśāhātpareṇa bhavati tadidamarthavat | prayatnenetyādi padadvayaṃ ślokapūraṇārtham | abhakṣyāṇītyanuvartate |

He shall carefully avoid the red exudation from trees, as also those flowing from incisions, the śelu berries, and ‘curdled milk’ of the cow.—(6)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Exudation from trees’;—anything, apart from the constituent parts of the tree itself,—such as, the root, the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the fruits and the flowers,—which proceeds from the tree, either in the form of some liquid flowing from the cavity in the tree, or in some other form. The epithet ‘red’ excludes, from prohibition, such exudations as the camphor and the like.

Those that have their origin, source, in ‘incisions’; those that flow from the bark and such parts of the tree. These things, if not red, are not forbidden.

‘Śelu’—the śleṣmātaka fruit, to be known from medical and other treatises. It should not be taken to mean the cream of fresh milk; as it is never known to have that meaning. It has been argued that—“it is better to take the word as standing for cream, on account of its proximity to the term, ‘curdled milk’”. But proximity becomes a means of deciding in favour of one of the two possible meanings of a term, only when the term is actually found in usage to be used in both senses; but it can never be the authority for attributing an unheard of meaning to a word.

‘Of the cow’;—this shows that that of the buffalo etc. is not forbidden. The milk is unfit to be eaten if, by mere contact with fire, it becomes ‘curdled’,—i.e., thickened without adhesion; the term ‘pīyūṣa’ is used in the sense of the milk of the newly-calved cow.

“The text is going to declare, as until to be eaten, the milk, along with all its preparations, of the cow for the first ten days of its calving; and it is only during three or four days that the milk is of the nature described above (i.e., curdled by mere contact with fire) [so that no separate prohibition appears to be called for.]”

True; the thing is mentioned in the present verse with a view to those cases where the milk continues to be so ‘curdled’ even after the first ten days.

The two words—‘carefully’ and ‘avoid?—are added only for filling up the metre; since ‘unfit to be eaten’ (of verse 5) continues to be connected with all that is mentioned in the text.—(6)