Praśna II, Adhyāya 2, Kaṇḍikā 4

1. 'Anybody but a Brāhmaṇa shall suffer corporal punishment for adultery.'^[1]

2. 'The wives (of men) of all castes must be guarded more carefully than wealth.'^[2]

3. 'But corporal punishment (shall) not (be inflicted) for (adultery with) the wives of minstrels and with those who appear on the stage. For (the husbands) carry them (to other men), or, lying concealed (at home), permit them to hold culpable intercourse.'^[3]

4. 'Women (possess) an unrivalled means of purification; they never become (entirely) foul. For month by month their temporary uncleanness removes their sins.'^[4]

5. 'Soma gave them cleanliness, the Gandharva their melodious voice, and Fire purity of all (limbs); therefore women are free from stains.'^[5]

6. 'Let him abandon a barren (wife) in the tenth year, one who bears daughters (only) in the twelfth, one whose children (all) die in the fifteenth, but her who is quarrelsome without delay.'^[6]

7. A widow shall avoid during a year (the use of) honey, meat, spirituous liquor, and salt, and sleep on the ground.^[7]

8. Maudgalya (declares that she shall do so) during six months.

9. After (the expiration of) that (time) she may, with the permission of her Gurus, bear a son to her brother-in-law, in case she has no son.^[8]

10. Now they quote also (the following verse): One whose appointment can have no result, (viz.) a barren woman, one who has borne sons, one who is past child-bearing, one whose children are (all) dead, and one who is unwilling must not be appointed.'^[9]

11. The sister of a maternal uncle and of the father, a sister, a sister's daughter, a daughter-in-law, a maternal uncle's wife, and the wife of a^[10] friend are females who must never be approached (agamyā).

12. For intercourse with females who must not be approached (agamyā), a Kṛcchra and an Atikṛcchra (and) a Cāndrāyaṇa are the penances prescribed for all.

13. Thereby (the rule regarding) intercourse with a female of the Caṇḍāla caste has been declared.^[11]

14. Now they quote also (the following verses): A Brāhmaṇa who unintentionally approaches a female of the Caṇḍāla caste, eats (food given by a Caṇḍāla) or receives (presents from him), becomes an outcast; but (if he does it) intentionally, he becomes equal (to a Caṇḍāla).^[12]

15. 'He who approaches his father's, his teacher's, or a king's wife, is guilty of the crime of violating a Guru's bed; the penance ordained for him has been declared above.'^[13]

16. (A Brāhmaṇa) who is unable (to subsist) by teaching, sacrificing for others, or the acceptance of gifts, shall maintain himself by following the duties of Kṣatriyas, because that is the next following (caste).^[14]

17. Gautama (declares that one shall) not (act thus). For the duties of Kṣatriyas are too cruel for a Brāhmaṇa.^[15]

18. Now they quote also (the following verse): 'Out of regard for the sacred law a Brāhmaṇa and a Vaiśya may take up arms for (the protection of) cows or Brāhmaṇas, or when a confusion of the castes (threatens to take place).^[16]

19. (Or) the livelihood of a Vaiśya should be adopted, because that is the one following (next):^[17]

20. (If he lives by agriculture) he shall plough before breakfast,^[18]

21. With two bulls whose noses have not been pierced, not striking them with the goad, (but) frequently coaxing them.

22. The (sacred domestic) fire (shall be kindled) at the wedding; the religious ceremonies up to the Agnyādheya (shall be) performed in that.^[19]

23. Now, beginning with the Agnyādheya, follow these (rites in an) uninterrupted (series), as, for instance, the Agnyādheya, the Agnihotra, the new and full moon sacrifices, the Āgraya.a at the winter and summer solstices, the animal sacrifice, the Cāturmāsyas at the beginning of each season, the Ṣaḍḍhotṛ in spring, the Agniṣṭoma. Thus the attainment of bliss (is secured).^[20]

24. Now they quote also (the following verse): 'Neither he who is accustomed to sleep in the day-time, nor he who eats the food of anybody, nor he who falls from a height to which he has climbed, can reach heaven as he desires.'^[21]

25. Let him avoid meanness, hard-heartedness, and crookedness.^[22]

26. Now they quote also with reference to this (subject the following) verse in the dialogue between the daughters of Uśanas and Vṛṣaparvan: 'Thou, forsooth, art the daughter of one who praises (others), who begs and accepts (gifts); but I am the child of one who is praised, who gives gifts and does not accept them.'^[23]

p. 238

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

4. Āpastamba II, 10, 26, 20; 10, 27, 11. Govinda thinks that non-Brāhmanical offenders should be burned, in accordance with Vasiṣṭha XXI, 2-3. But mutilation may also be intended. Saṃgrahaṇa, 'adultery,' probably includes all those acts mentioned Manu VIII, 354-358.

[2]:

Manu VIII, 359.

[3]:

Manu VIII, 362. I read conjecturally, 'saṃsarjayanti tā hyetā niguptāś cālayantyapi,' basing my emendations on Manu's text. The MSS. and Govinda have, saṃsarjayanti tā hyetān niguptāṃś cālayanty api, which gives no good sense. Govinda explains cāraṇadārāḥ, 'the wives of minstrels,' by devadāsyaḥ, 'temple-slaves.'

[4]:

Vasiṣṭha XXVIII, 4.

[5]:

Vasiṣṭha XXVIII, 6.

[6]:

Manu IX, 81.

[7]:

-8. Vasiṣṭha XVII, 55. The word madya, 'spirituous liquor,' occurs in M. and the I. O. copy of the commentary. The MSS. from the Dekhan and Gujarāt, including K., read majjana or maḍḍāna, the compound letter being very indistinct.

[8]:

Vasiṣṭha XVII, 56, where the term 'Gurus' is fully explained.

[9]:

Vasiṣṭha XVII, 57-59. M. and the two copies of the commentary read piśācotpannaputrā ca instead of vasā cotpannaputrā ca, 'a barren woman and one who has borne sons.' I follow the Dekhan and Gujarāt MSS., which undoubtedly give the genuine reading. Perhaps the term avaśām, Vasiṣṭha XVII, 57, should be corrected to vaśām.

[10]:

-12. These two Sūtras are additions to II, 1, 2, 13. See also Nārada XII, 73-74; Vasiṣṭha XXI, 16.

[11]:

Vasiṣṭha XXIII, 41; Viṣṇu LIII, 5-6.

[12]:

Manu XI, 176.

[13]:

Govinda thinks that the penance intended is that mentioned in Sūtra 12. Probably a severer one is meant. The verse is interesting, as it clearly is a quotation from some metrical work on law, not merely of traditional detached ślokas.

[14]:

Vasiṣṭha II, 22. The Sūtra 'adhyāpanayājanapratigrahair aśaktaḥ kṣatradharmeṇa jīvet pratyanantaratvāt' occurs in the two copies of the commentary only. The I. O. copy of the commentary has, however, before it the following words: [dharmya] svādhyāyapravacane evety adhikānāṃ [kāraṃ] darśayati pratigṛhītā tādṛk pratigrahītāraṃ gṛdhnuvanti [tāra ṛdhnu°] ṛtvigyajamānā yājinau p. 236[°jane] tadaśaktau kṣatradharmau. M. reads, dharmanasvādhyāyapravacana [ne] ityadhikāraṇ darśayati pratigrahītādṛk pratigrahītāra ṛdhnuvanti ṛtvigyajamāna yājanau tadaśaktau svādhyāyadhyā [°yādhya] panayajñayājanapratigrahair aśaktama [taḥ] kṣatradharmmeṇa gīvet. The Dekhan and Gujarāt MSS. read, dhārmye svādhyāyapravacane ityadhikāraṃ darśayati | pratigrahe dātā pratigrahītā[ra] ṛdhnuvanti | ṛtvigyajamānā yājane | tadaśaktau kṣatradharmeṇa jīvayet, or have corruptions of this passage. I cannot come to any other conclusion than that the passage which precedes the words translated by me are a very ancient interpolation, caused by the embodiment of a portion of an old Bhāṣya with the text, and that all our MSS., however much they may differ, go back to one codex archetypus.

[15]:

Gautama Introduction, p. lii.

[16]:

Gautama VII, 25.

[17]:

Vasiṣṭha II, 24.

[18]:

-21. Vasiṣṭha II, 32.

[19]:

Vasiṣṭha VIII, 3. The religious ceremonies to be performed with the sacred domestic fire, which, according to Baudhāyana, p. 237 should be kindled at the wedding, not on the division of the paternal estate (Gautama V, q), are the so-called Gṛhya ceremonies (Gautama V, 8-9).

[20]:

Vasiṣṭha XI, 46. The sacrifices enumerated in this Sūtra require three fires, and belong to the śrauta or vaitānika yajñas. The Ṣaḍḍhotṛ mentioned here seems to be the animal sacrifice mentioned in the commentary on Kātyāyana Śrauta-sūtra VI, 1, 36.

[21]:

An ārūḍhapatita, 'he who falls from a height to which he has climbed,' is, according to Govinda, an ascetic who slides back into civil life.

[22]:

Vasiṣṭha VI, 40; X, 30. Govinda explains śāṭhyam, 'hard-heartedness,' by śaktau satyām api paropakārācaraṇam, 'not doing a kindness to others though one is able to do so.'

[23]:

The dialogue mentioned is that between Śarmiṣṭhā and p. 238 Devayānī, which occurs Mahābhārata I, 78. The verse quoted is the tenth of that Adhyāya, and agrees with ours, except that sutāham is read for athāham in the beginning of the second half verse.