Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 2027

126
LAWS OF MANU.
III, 275.
275. Whatever (a man), full of faith, duly gives according to the prescribed rule, that becomes in the other world a perpetual and imperishable (gratification) for the manes.
276. The days of the dark half of the month, beginning with the tenth, but excepting the fourteenth, are recommended for a funeral sacrifice; (it is) not thus (with) the others.
277. He who performs it on the even (lunar) days and under the even constellations, gains (the fulfilment of) all his wishes; he who honours the manes on odd (lunar days) and under odd (constellations), obtains distinguished offspring.
278. As the second half of the month is preferable to the first half, even so the afternoon is better for (the performance of) a funeral sacrifice than the forenoon.
Medh. says that others' improperly explain prâkkhâye kuñgarasya,
in the afternoon) when the shadow of an elephant falls towards the east' (Kull., Nâr., Râgh.), by during an eclipse.' He also mentions a var. lect. prâkkhâyâm. It seems, however, by no means certain that the explanation, adopted by him and most commentators, is the correct one. It is much more probable that a particular day (see Vigñânesvara on Yagñ. I, 217) is meant. The thirteenth lunar day is, of course, the thirteenth of the dark half of Bhadrapada, the day of the Mahâlaya Sraddha.
276. Ap. II, 17, 6; Gaut. XV, 3; Yâgñ. I, 263; Vas. XI, 16. The reason why the fourteenth is excepted, is given Vi. LXXVIII, 50, and Yâgñ. loc. cit.
277. Ap. II, 17, 8-22; Gaut. XV, 4; Vi. LXXVIII, 8-49; Yâgñ. I, 267. I read with Medh., Gov., Nand., Râgh., and K. pitrin arkan, which, to judge from the commentary, must have been Kull.'s reading also, instead of the senseless pitrin sarvån of the editions. Nand. adds five verses and a half which give the details with respect to the rewards obtained by performing the Sraddhas on particular lunar days. They are clearly an interpolation.
278. Ap. II, 17, 5.
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