Verse 5.148

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

सदा प्रहृष्टया भाव्यं गृहकार्ये च दक्षया ।
सुसंस्कृतोपस्करया व्यये चामुक्तहस्तया ॥ १४८ ॥

sadā prahṛṣṭayā bhāvyaṃ gṛhakārye ca dakṣayā |
susaṃskṛtopaskarayā vyaye cāmuktahastayā || 148 ||

She should be always cheerful and alert in household-work; she should have the utensils well-cleaned and in spending she should be close-fisted.—(148).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The term ‘sadā’, like the term ‘nitya’, signifies constantly.

‘Cheerful’— always smiling. Even though elsewhere the might have had reasons for anger and sorrow, yet when she sees her husband, she should show that she is happy, by means of a cheerful face, smiles, sweet words and so forth. This advice is meant for the married as well as the unmarried girl.

‘Alert in household-work,’—in laying by and spending money in such religious acts as bathing and the like. What is ‘household-work’ has been explained in 9.11. In all that she should be ‘alert’, expert. That is to say, she should be able to cook food quickly and so forth.

‘She should have the utensils well cleaned’— Vessels used in the house, such as the jar, the the and so forth, are called ‘utensils’; and all these should be ‘well cleaned’, thoroughly washed and nice-looking.

‘In spending’—wealth, over the feeding of friends, relations and guests,—‘she should be close-fisted’—not too liberal; that is, she should not spend too much.

‘Susaṃskṛtopaskaraya’ is a Bahuvrīhi compound—‘she whose upaskaras, utensils, are susaṁskṛta, ‘well-cleaned.’ Similarly ‘mukta-hastayā’ means ‘she whose hasta, fist, is mukta, open’; and this is compounded with the negative particle. But apart from its literal meaning, the word ‘mukta-hasta’ denotes, by convention, liberality—(148).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

(Verse 150 of others.)

This verse is quoted in Madanparāijāta (p. 192);—in Vivādaratnākara (p. 427);—in Varṣakriyākaumvdī (p. 577), which explains ‘upaskara’ as ‘household implements’;—and in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Saṃskāra, p. 67a).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Viṣṇu (25.4-6).—‘(The duties of woman)—To keep household articles in good array; to maintain saving habits; to be careful with her domestic utensils.’

Yājñavalkya (1.83).—‘Keeping household articles in good order, expert, joyous, averse to expenditure, devoted to her husband, she shall offer obeisance to the feet of her parents-in-law.’

Śaṅkha (Aparārka, p. 108).—‘She should not go out of the house until told to do so; she shall never go out without her upper garment; shall not walk fast; shall never speak to another man, except to the trader, the wandering mendicant, the old and the physician; shall never expose her navel, etc., etc.’

Śukranīti (4.4.11).—‘Woman has no separate right to the employing of the means of realising the three ends of Merit, Wealth and Pleasure.’