Manava Dharmashastra 5.71

5.71

asaṃskṛtā yā vāṅmātreṇa pratigṛhītā na ca vivāhitāstāsāṃ maraṇe bāndhavāḥ patipakṣāstrirātreṇa | sanābhayastu sapiṇḍāḥ svapitṛpakṣā yathoktena kalpena “nirvṛttacaulakānāmiti” jāteradhikārāttrirātreṇa | anyaistūktaṃ sodaryā daśarātreṇeti | teṣāṃ cābhiprāyaḥ | aṣṭavarṣāyāḥ kanyāyā dānaṃ vihitam | dattāyāśca nirvṛttacauḍakavyapadeśābhāvātpuṃsa ivopanatisya, tadānīṃ kalpāntarasyānāmnānāddaśāha eva yuktaḥ | anyaistu paṭhitam “ahastvadattakanyāsu bāleṣu ca viśodhanam” iti | tatra vyākhyātāraḥ pañcadaśābdadeśīyā'pi yā hyadattā kanyā tiṣṭhettadaharevāśaucam | mukhyamājñānamatikramya kālakṣapaṇe pramāṇābhāvāt | tatrocyate | ‘bāleṣu ceti’ ko'syārthaḥ | yāvatā uktameva yogavibhāge “ā dantajanmanaḥ sadya” iti | na caitena tadbādhituṃ yuktam, sāmānyarūpatvādasya, tasya ca viśeṣavyavasthāpanarūpatvāt | ato'yamekāhaḥ pṛthagukto'pi ācūr̤ādeva vyavatiṣṭhate | sāmānyasya viśeṣāpekṣatvāt | tasmātsnānārtha evāyamardhaślokaḥ pratipadyate—sparśaviṣayatayā neyaḥ | sparśapratiṣedho hi sūtakasūtakayorbālasyāpi puṃvatprāptaḥ | tadarthametaduktaṃ syāt “ahastvadattakanyāsu bāleṣu ca viśodhanam” iti | evaṃ ca viṣayasaptamyāśritā bhavati | sā ca yuktā kārakavibhaktitvāt | itarathā adhyāhṛtya bhāvalakṣaṇā saptamī vyākhyāyeta, ‘bāleṣu mṛteṣu jīvatāṃ śuddhiriti’ | na ca tadupasparśanādāśaucametenaitatsiddhayatīti | viṣayāntare tasya ca caritārthatvāt, bhūmau parivṛttatvāt, bhūmau parivṛttasya ca sparśanāsambhavāt | “aviśeṣoktau kuto viśeṣapratipattiriti” cet | tasyācamanakalpo vidyata ityetatsannidhau tādṛśasyaiva sparśasya pratīyamānatvāt | tathā ca rajasvalāspṛṣṭino bālasya sparśānaṃ necchanti | athāsya viśeṣaṇaṃ syāt | tathā gautamena taduktaṃ svasyāṃ smṛtau | yuktamevādhātumetasya | tasmādyuktaivādhānakālalaghvyā |

In the case of women whose sacramentary rite has not been performed, the marital relations become pure after three days; and their paternal relations also become pure according to the rule prescribed before—(71).

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Whose sacramentary rite has been performed;’—i.e, those who have been accepted verbally, but have not been actually married; at the death of such women, their‘marital relations’—on her husband’s side, &c., &c.

‘Their paternal relations’—on the father’s side—are purified‘according to the rule prescribed before’—in verse 66; i.e., in three days; this rule being laid down with reference to a particular caste.

Others have explained the second half as referring to the rule that ‘uterine brothers and sisters are purified in ten days’ (the word ‘sanābhi’ being taken to mean ‘uterine’). The view of these persons is as follows:—It has been laid down that a girl should be given away in her eighth year: so that one who has teen given away is not. spoken of as ‘one whose tonsure has teen performed’,—just as the ‘initiated boy’ is not so spoken of; and in as much as no other rule has been laid down, the only right course to adopt is to observe the impurity tor ten days.

Others again have read (the second half) as—‘ahastvadatta-kanyāsu bālāsu ca vishodhanam’; and people have explained this to mean that, even in the case of a girl that remains unmarried till she is nearly fifteen years old, the impurity shall last for one day only; and this on the ground that there is no justification for rejecting the direct injunction and observing a longer period of impurity.

Our answer to this is as follows:—What is the use of the expression ‘bālāsu ca’, when it has been already asserted that‘upto the appearance of teeth, the purity is immediate’? It is not right to have this assertion set aside by the present later declaration: because the present declaration is a general one, while the former is more specialised. Hence the ‘one day’ rule, even though laid down, can only be taken as referring to children till the performance of their Tonsure; specially as a general statement is always dependent upon (and controlled by) particular ones. For these reasons the suggested reading of the second half of the verse must be rejected as not. emanating from the sage. But it may be taken as refering to touchability. There is un-touchability due to the birth or death of a child, exactly as in the case of grown up men; and it is only with reference to this that there could be the assertion that—‘there is purity (i.e., touch-ability) after one day in the case of unmarried girls and young children, (i.e., these become touchable in one day)’; and it is in this sense that the Locative ending (in ‘bālāsu’ and ‘kanyāsu’) be comes justified as being the correct one: since it is a regular case-ending. If the words were taken in any other sense (e.g., as meaning‘at the death of girls and hoys, &c.’), it would be necessary to have elliptical construction and to take the Locative ending in the‘absolute’ sense:—‘girls and hoys having died, the purity of those living comes about after one day’; and we could not get at the sense that the impurity spoken of results from the touching of the dead; specially as the former (the seme obtained by construing the line as Locative Absolute) has its sphere of application elsewhere, in the ease of burial under-ground; and no touching is possible in the case of the body being placed under the ground.

“Since the assertion is a general one, wherefore is it restricted to a particular case.’”?.

As a matter of fact, we find a rule regarding the sipping of water in the same connection; and in connection with this, it is only the said kind of hatch that is possible. It is for this reason that people do not consider it desirable to touch the child that has touched a menstruating woman; and this may be regarded as the qualifying factor in the present case; is has been declared by Gautama in his Smṛti; it is only right for such a person to set up the fire; hence it is only right that it should be taken as pointing to the time of setting up the fire.—(71).

(Verse 72 of other commentators.)

‘Yathoktena kalpena’—‘According to the rule declared in verse 67’ (Medhātithi, Govindarāja and Nandana);—‘just like the husband’s relatives, i.e., after three days’ (Kullūka, Nārāyaṇa and Rāghavānanda).

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 907), which supplies the following explanation:—In the case of ‘asaṃskṛta’—i.e., unmarried—women, the ‘bāndhavas’—i.e., their relations on the husband’s side—become pure in three days; but their sanābhayaḥ—i.e., relations on the father’s side—become pure according to the aforesaid rule. It is because the relations on the father’s side are separately mentioned by means of the word ‘sanābhayaḥ’ that the generic term ‘bāndhavāḥ’ is taken in the special sense of ‘relations on the husband’s side’. But there can be no such relations in the case of unmarried women; hence the women meant here must be those that have been verbally betrothed, but not yet formally married.—‘Sanābhayaḥ,’ the relations on the father’s side, are purified according to the rule that has been laid down in connection with the death of a boy before Upanayana,—i.e., the impurity ceases after three days. The analogy between the two cases is based upon the principle that for women ‘marriage’ takes the place of the Upanayana; so that the unmarried girl stands on the same footing as the uninitiated boy.

The verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (on 3.24), to the effect that in the case of girls who have been betrothed, but not married, the relations on the father’s side are purified in three days. Here also ‘bāndhava’ and ‘sanābhi’ are explained as in Aparārka; and it is added that the ‘ten-days’ rule could not be rightly applied before marriage.’

It is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 608), in the same sense, and ‘bāndhavāḥ’ is explained as patisapiṇḍāḥ, and ‘sanābhayaḥ’ as ‘pitṛsapiṇḍāḥ’,—and yathoktena kalpena as the ‘three days’ rule’.

It is also quoted in Smṛtitattva (II, p. 264) in the sense that in the case of girls that have been betrothed, but whose marriage-rites have not been. performed, the sapiṇḍas of her husband are purified in three days, while the sapiṇḍas of her father are purified by the said rule, i.e., by the rule declared in the first half of the verse. It adds that ‘betrothal’ must be a necessary condition, as before that the unmarried girl win have no relations ‘on the husband’s side’; and that her father’s sapiṇḍas to only three degrees are meant, because of the express declaration of Vaśiṣṭha that ‘for unmarried girls the sapiṇḍa-relationship extends to only three degrees.’

This is quoted in Hāralatā (p. 49), whieh adds the following notes:—‘Asaṃskṛtānām,’ unmarried,—‘bāndhavāḥ’ relations on the husband’s side—‘yathoktena,’ as described in the first line of the verse, i.e., they are purified in three days;—the first half refers to the girl dying after betrothal, as before betrothal, the girl can have no ‘relations on the husband’s side’; her ‘sanābhayaḥ,’ i.e., relations on her father’s side, also become pure in three days.

Comparative notes by various authors
Baudhāyana (1.11.8).—(Same as Manu.)

Āśvalāyana Gṛhyasūtra (4.4.23).—‘Three days after the death of married female relations.’

Yājñavalkya (3.23).—‘On the death of girls not given away, purification is attained in one day.’

Vṛddha-Manu (Aparārka, p. 908).—‘On the death of girls not given away, purification is attained in one day; on that of those given away, in three days.’

Marīci (Do.).—‘In the case of the death of girls,—prior to tonsure, the purification is immediate; before betrothal, it is obtained in one day; after betrothal, before marriage, in three days.’

Pulastya (Aparārka, p. 908).—‘In the case of girls not grown up, one becomes pure in one day; in that of one betrothed, in one night along with the preceding and following days; and in that of one altogether given away, in three days.’

Brahmapurāṇa (Do.).—‘If a girl who has been given away dies in her father’s house, her relations become purified in one day, but her father in three days; if a girl dies after birth and before her tonsure, the purification is immediate for all castes; if she dies after tonsure and before betrothal, it is attained in one day; after betrothal, in three days.’

Marīci (Parāśaramādhava, p. 608).—‘The girl that has been offered without, water, and not actually given away, is to he regarded as unmarried; and in the event of her death, the impurity lasts for three days for her relations on both sides. In the case of girls, betrothed or not betrothed, married or not married, the impurity for parents lasts three days, and for others according to rule.’