Manava Dharmashastra 6.68

6.68

yaduktaṃ “dṛṣṭipūtaṃ nyasediti” tasya prayojanapradarśanaśloko'yam | śarīrasyātyaye'pi śarīrapīḍayāmapi satyāṃ rātrāvahani vā tṛṇāstaraṇe śayanārthamāstīrṇe'pi śarīraniṣaṅgo'navekṣyādṛṣṭvā na kartavyaḥ| asminvyatikrame prāyaścittam | athavā'tyantasūkṣmāḥ kecana kṣudrajantavo ye sarve śarīrāvayavasaṃvalanamātreṇaiva naśyanti tadarthamidam |

With a view to the safety of living beings, he shall always, during day and night, even during bodily illness, walk after having scanned the ground.—(68)

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This verse shows the necessity for what has been said above (46) regarding the treading on the ground ‘sight-purified.’

‘Even during bodily illness’—when the body is suffering from some disease;—‘during day and night’— when the grass-bed has been spread for sleeping, he shall not lay down his body upon it without having carefully looked over it. The transgression of this rule involves the necessity of performing an expiatory rite.

Or, the text may be taken as referring to those minute animalcules that become attached to the man’s body and perish by the mere moving of the limbs.—(68)

Cf. 6.46.

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 570.)