Manava Dharmashastra 6.38

6.38

prājāpatyā'dhvaryuvede vihitā | tasyāṃ ca sarvasvadānaṃ vihitam | tāṃ kṛtvā''tmanyagnayaḥ samāropyante | samāropaṇe'pi vidhivrata evāvagantavyaḥ |
sārvavedasaṃ dakṣiṇā'syāstītyanyapadārthaḥ | ‘vedo’ dhanam, tatsarvaṃ deyam | idamarthe vihitaḥ svārthiko vā prajñāderākṛtigaṇatvāt |
anye tu puruṣamedhaṃ prājāpatyāmiṣṭimāhuḥ | tatra ‘‘brahmaṇe brāhmaṇamālabhata’’ iti prathamaḥ paśuḥ, brahmā ca prajāpatiḥ, mukhyena vyapadeśapravṛtteḥ ‘prājāpatyaḥ’ puruṣamedhaḥ | sarvasvadānamagnisamāropaṇaṃ pravrajyā ca tatraiva vihitā | evaṃ hi tatra śrutiḥ ‘‘athātmanyagnīnsamāropya tatrāropaṇenādityopasthānādapecamāgauraṇyamabhipreyāttaddaiva devamanuṣyebhyaḥ sthiro bhavatīti |’’
yattu—‘‘ātmanyagnīnsamāropya pravrajyayā vyapadiṣṭā, athāha eta eva ātmano yajñā, ityatastanmaraṇāttasyai dattā ‘ātmanyeva samāropitā’ bhavanti | ato bhāryāmaraṇāpatte pravrajyā, nāvaśyaṃ punardārakriyeti’’—tanna | kiṃtu tasyāḥ pūrvamaraṇe bhāryāyai dattvā'gnīnanyakarmaṇīti paṭhitamiti vaktavyamiti | pauruṣeyo hyayaṃ grantho na vedo, yenoktamupālabhemahīti parihāraḥ syāt |

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Prājāpatya Sacrifice’—as prescribed in the Yajurveda; at this the giving away of all one’s belongings is enjoined. After this has been performed, the Fires are reposited by the man within himself; the exact procedure of this repositing also has to be learnt from that same Veda.

The compound ‘Sarvavedasadakṣiṇam’is to be treated as a Bahuvrīhi compound; ‘that at which all one’s belongings are given away as the sacrificial fee’. ‘Vedas’ mean wealth; and the whole of this is to be given away. This is the sense attributed to the ‘an’ affix in the term ‘sarvāvedasa’. Or the ‘an’ affix may be taken in the reflexive sense; the ‘Prajñādi group’ (which are laid down as taking the said affix in this sense) being a purely tentative one.

Others have explained the ‘Prājāpatya sacrifice’ as human sacrifice. At this latter the Brāhmaṇa forms the first animal to be sacrificed in accordance with the injunction ‘the Brāhmaṇa should be sacrificed to Brahman’; and ‘Prājāpati’ is only another name f or Brahman; and since a sacrifice is named after its chief deity, ‘Prājāpatya’ is the name for the human sacrifice. Farther, it is only in connection with this sacrifice that the scriptures have enjoined the giving away of all belongings, the repositing of the Fires within oneself and the going forth as a mendicant. We have the following Śruti -text on this point:—‘Having reposited the

Fires within himself, and regarding this repositing as a worship rendered unto Āditya, the man should go forth; then alone does he become securer than gods and men

Some people have held that the ‘repositing of the Fires within himself’, which is mentioned in connection with Renunciation, becomes fulfilled if the Fires are made over to the wife at her death; and hence Renunciation is to be taken to only in the event of the wife’s death, when a second wife need not be taken.

But in that case the text bearing on the subject should have been in some such form as—‘in the event of the wife dying first, the Fires should be made over to her at her funeral rite’, and since the present treatise is the work of a human author, and not a Veda, the answer would not be available that no exception can be taken to its words. (?)—(38).