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Sanskrit Tidbits-22:An introduction to Manusmriti

Because of what has happened, the following shloka has been circulating on the Net.  The translation is straightforward.  “Where women are honoured, the gods are delighted.”  That’s the first line.  Because of  यियाः, the second line’s translation may seem less obvious.  In fact, the second line is sometimes quoted as यत्र एतास् तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास् तत्र अफलाः क्रियाः and now the meaning is clear.  “But, where they are not honoured, all sacrificial rates are rendered unsuccessful”.  What I have quoted is the original shloka, though यियाः and क्रियाः have the same meaning.  This shloka is from Manusmriti. It is shloka number 3.56, the 56th shloka in the 3rd chapter or section.  3.55 and 3.57-60 echo similar sentiments.

यत्र नार्यस् तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देबताः।

यत्र एतास् तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास् तत्र अफलाः यियाः॥

3.55 says, पितृभिर् भ्रातृभिश् चएता: पतिभिर् देवरैस् तथा। पूज्या भूषयितव्याश् च बहुकल्याणम् ईप्सुभिः॥  “Fathers, brothers, husbands and brothers-in-law, who desire a lot of welfare for themselves, must honour and ornament them.”  3.57 says, शोचन्ति जामयो यत्र विनश्यत्याशु तत् कुलम्। न शोचन्ति तु यत्रएता वर्ध ते तद्द हि सर्वदा॥  By the way, जामा is daughter and जामाता, as son-in-law, comes from that.  Hence, the translation of 3.57 is, “Where the daughters sorrow, the lineage/family/household is soon destroyed.  Where they do not sorrow, there is always prosperity.”  I am not going to quote 3.58-60, because those are similar and repetitive. Therefore, women were revered and honoured, in Manusmriti.

However, also from Manusmriti, I can quote 2.213.

स्वभाव एष नारीणां नराणाम् इह दूषणम्।

अतो अर्थान् न प्रभाद्यन्ति प्रमदासु विपश्चितः॥

Some words need explanation.  इह is this world. Hence, the first line is clear.  “In this world, it is the nature of women to spoil/corrupt/seduce men.  विपश्चितः is someone who is learned and प्रमदा is a woman, usually a young and beautiful one.  प्रभाद्यन्ति (in this context) means to be distracted.  “For this reason, the learned are not distracted among beautiful women.”  2.214 seems to make it worse.अविद्वांसम् अलं लोके विद्वांसम् अपि वा पुनः। प्रमदा ह्युत्पथं नेतुं कामो धवशानुगम्॥  “In this world, a beautiful woman is capable of making a learned man, and not just a stupid man, deviate from the path and succumb to desire and anger.”  Indeed, Manusmriti is usually identified with nasty things that are said about women (and shudras).  There are many more nasty shlokas than pleasant ones.

My purpose in these tidbits is not to discuss the status of women in historical India.  Nor is it to discuss Manusmriti.  My purpose is to trigger an interest in Sanskrit and make you read Manusmriti in the original.  Manusmriti is the first, and the most important, of the Dharmashastra texts.  There are 2685 shlokas (spread over 12 chapters) in Manusmriti and these are in the form of instructions given by Manu and Bhrigu (believed to be Manu’s son) to sages, when the law of the Vedas had been destroyed in a flood.  The text was probably composed between 200 BCE and 200 ACE, though if one sticks to beliefs about Manu’s antiquity, much earlier dates are possible.  I think the world has been somewhat unkind to Manusmriti and Manu, following the interpretations of Western scholars.  Manusmriti and the Dharmashastras have been interpreted as “law” and the rigidity of that law has been castigated.  On reading the Manusmriti, I have never quite got the feeling that this was meant to be rigid and inflexible “law”, something that had been codified and was therefore, inviolate.  Instead, I get the sense of advice being offered to the sages, something much more loose.  However, I am not a Sanskrit or Indological scholar.  Read it and judge for yourselves.  But several of our practices are based on Manusmriti.  Hence, completely at random, in this week’s tidbits and a few more tidbits, I will give you some kind of flavor.  I will not quote entire shlokas, but give you the exact references, so that you can look up the Sanskrit, if you so wish.

1.10 – We know about the story of creation and how there was water and darkness everywhere.  Brahma was born from a golden egg and created the world.  Before that, Vishnu lay down in the waters.  नार means water.  Why is नार water?  Because it is the son of नर (Vishnu).  One of Vishnu’s names is नारायण.  The word अयन means abode and Vishnu is known as Narayana because water (नार) was his abode.  Quiz question. Abode is अयन, not अयण.  Why do we have this change from अयन to अयण?  This is because of a grammatical rule that I will ignore for the moment.

1.64-1.86 – 18 निमेष-s (twinkling of the eye) constitute one काष्ठा, 30 काष्ठा-s are one कला, 30 कला-s are one मुहूर्त and there are 30 मुहूर्त-s in one day and night.  A month (for humans) is one day and night fo the ancestors/manes.  A year (for humans) is one day and one night for the gods.  When the sun travels northwards, that is day for the gods.  When the sun travels southwards, that is night for the gods.  Krita (satya) yuga is four thousand years for the gods, with four hundred years added before the yuga and four hundred years added after the yuga.  Treta yuga is three thousand years of the gods, with three hundred years added before the yuga and three hundred years after the yuga.  Dvapara yuga is two thousand years of the gods, with two hundred years added before the yuga and two hundred years after the yuga.  Kali yuga is one thousand years of the gods, with one hundred years added before the yuga and one hundred years after the yuga.  The twelve thousand years (ten thousand plus two thousand) are one yuga for the gods. One thousand yugas for the gods constitute one of Brahma’s days.  One thousand yugas for the gods constitute one of Brahma’s nights.  71 yugas of the gods constitute one manvantara, each such manvantara presided over by a Manu.  Austerities should be performed in krita yuga, knowledge should have the focus in treta yuga, sacrifices in dvapara yuga and generosity/donations in kali yuga.

2.17- The land, created by the gods, between the rivers Sarasvati and Dhrishadvati, is known as Brahmavarta. By the way, Sarasvati means a river that has many pools in it.  Drishadvati means a river that has many stones in it.

Sanskrit Tidbits

Bibek Debroy
Chapters
Sanskrit Tidbits-43:Exploring Sanskrit Bharati’s Sanskrit Wikipedia Sanskrit Tidbits-41:Vedic Sanskrit and wisdom of Upanishadas Sanskrit Tidbits-40:The brilliance of Sanskrit poet Magha Sanskrit Tidbits-39:Kalidasa anecdotes Sanskrit Tidbits-37:Valmiki’s Poetry Sanskrit Tidbits-36:First Shloka of Valmiki Ramayana Sanskrit Tidbits-35: Durga Saptashati famous hymn sung by Gods for Goddess Durga made easy Sanskrit Tidbits-34:An introduction to Maarkandeya Purana Sanskrit Tidbits-33:Shivaashtakam made easy Sanskrit Tidbits-32:A shloka by Vivekananda in honour of Paramahansa Sanskrit Tidbits-31:Spiritual aspect of Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-30:Manusmriti on crimes,punishments,penances and intercourse Sanskrit Tidbits-29:More on different Varnas-Brahman,Shudra as per ManuSmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-28:Manusmriti and Position of Women Sanskrit Tidbits-27:18 Types of cases dealt by kings as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-26:Duties of a king as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-25:Strictures on different kinds of food as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-24:Brahmin and Sanatan Dharma as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-23:Different types of Marriages as per Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-22:An introduction to Manusmriti Sanskrit Tidbits-21:How Sanskrit is a two-way flow Sanskrit Tidbits-20:More about the sanskrit thesaurus Amarkosha Sanskrit Tidbits-19:An introduction to Amarkosha,the Sanskrit Thesaurus Sanskrit Tidbits-18:Jayadeva’s Geet Govind and erotic undertones in Radha-Krishna’s love Sanskrit Tidbits-17:Exploring Jayadeva’s Geet Govind Sanskrit Tidbits-16:Metres in Sanskrit,Fibonacci Series,Pascal’s Triangle and Binomial Theorem Sanskrit Tidbits-15:Poetry,Kalidasa,Jaideva and Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-14: Deeper Nuances of Sanskrit Poetry Sanskrit Tidbits-13:An introduction to Vedangas Sanskrit Tidbits-11:Rules, Formulae and Aphorisms Sanskrit Tidbits-10: Fun with riddles in Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-9:Sanskrit alphabets,phonemes and mathematics Sanskrit Tidbits-8: Myth behind different names of Lotus in Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-7: Myth behind most commonly used words in hymns Sanskrit Tidbits-6:How innovative is Sanskrit! Sanskrit Tidbits-5: The Importance of Pronounciation in Sanskrit Sanskrit Tidbits-4:Can you detect anything wrong in this picture? Sanskrit Tidbits-3 Sanskrit Tidbits-2 Sanskrit Tidbits-1