Manava Dharmashastra 5.80

5.80

vedaśākhādhyāyī śrotriyaḥ | upasampannaḥ maitryā prayojanena vā kenacitsaṅgataḥ śīlena yukto vā | pūrvaṃ tu sabrahmacāriṇyekāmagṛhītavede dṛṣṭam | abhidhānakośe tu ‘upasampanno’ mṛtaparyāyaḥ | bahukālatvādāśaucasya pūrvaiva vyākhyā jyāyasī | anye tu ‘śrotriye mātule trirātrami’tyeva sambadhnanti, ‘pakṣiṇīṃ rātri’miti śiṣyādibhiḥ | bāndhavāḥ śyālakamātṛṣvasreyādayaḥ | yadā tu ‘mātule pakṣiṇīmiti’ sambandhastadā mātule bāndhavatvādeva siddhā pakṣiṇī, punarvacanaṃ nityārtham | tenānyeṣu bāndhaveṣu yathākāmam |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Learned’—Who has studied the Vedic text.

‘Companion’—who, through friendship, has been living with one. Or ‘upasampanna’ may mean endowed with good character.

What has been said before (Verse 70) regarding the case of ‘fellow-students’ pertains to those who have not yet got up the entire Veda.

In lexicons the term ‘upasampanna’ appears as a synonym for ‘dead’; but in view of the long period of impurity laid down (which would not be compatible with the case of a stranger), the former explanation is the better of the two.

Others construe the text otherwise—explaining it to mean that ‘the impurity lasts for three clays in the case of the learned maternal uncle’ and ‘for a night along with the two days in the case of the pupil, etc.’

The term ‘relation’ stands for the wife’s brother, the son of the maternal aunt and so forth.

When we connect the ‘maternal uncle’ with‘the night along with the two days’,—then, since this period would be already applicable to the case of the maternal uncle by reason of his being a ‘relation’, the separate mention of him should he taken as making the rule compulsory in his case; and this would mean that in the case of other relations, it would be discretionary.—(80)