Manusmriti — Chapter on Expiations and Ritual-Juridical Remedies, Shloka 175
चण्डालान्त्यस्त्रियो गत्वा भुक्त्वा च प्रतिगृह्य च पतत्य् अज्ञानतो विप्रो ज्ञानात् साम्यं तु गच्छति //
caṇḍālāntyastriyo gatvā bhuktvā ca pratigṛhya ca pataty ajñānato vipro jñānāt sāmyaṃ tu gacchati //
ചണ്ഡാലന്മാരുടെ അടുക്കലേക്കും ‘അന്ത്യ’ (അത്യന്തം താഴ്ന്ന) വിഭാഗത്തിലെ സ്ത്രീകളുടെ അടുക്കലേക്കും പോയി, അവിടെ ഭക്ഷണം കഴിക്കുകയും അവിടെ നിന്ന് ദാനം/ഉപഹാരം സ്വീകരിക്കുകയും ചെയ്താൽ, ബ്രാഹ്മണൻ അജ്ഞാനവശാൽ പതിതനാകുന്നു; അറിഞ്ഞുകൊണ്ട് ചെയ്താൽ (ഗ്രന്ഥത്തിലെ വർഗ്ഗീകരണപ്രകാരം) ‘സാമ്യം’—അഥവാ അവരുടെ സമസ്ഥിതിയിലേക്ക്—ചേരുന്നു എന്ന് പറയുന്നു.
चण्डाल (caṇḍāla): a group classified as outside the four varṇas in Dharmaśāstra discourse; अन्त्य-स्त्रियो (antya-striyo): women designated as ‘last/lowest’ in the text’s social taxonomy; गत्वा (gatvā): having gone; भुक्त्वा (bhuktvā): having eaten; प्रतिगृह्य (pratigṛhya): having accepted/received (esp. gifts); पतति (patati): falls (from status/standing); अज्ञानतः (ajñānataḥ): through ignorance, unknowingly; विप्रः (vipraḥ): a Brahmin; ज्ञानात् (jñānāt): knowingly, with awareness; साम्यम् (sāmyam): sameness/equality (here, levelling of status in the text’s hierarchy); गच्छति (gacchati): goes, comes to
FAQs
This verse belongs to Adhyaya 11, a section largely concerned with prāyaścitta (expiation) and the consequences of transgressions as conceptualized in Dharmaśāstra. It reflects a historical discourse in which commensality (eating with/at certain groups) and pratigraha (accepting gifts) were treated as markers of ritual and social boundaries, especially for Brahmins.
The verse distinguishes between actions done unknowingly (ajñānataḥ) and knowingly (jñānāt). In the text’s internal logic, ignorance leads to ‘falling’ (patati), while deliberate participation is framed as ‘going to sameness/equality’ (sāmyaṃ gacchati), i.e., a levelling of the actor’s status to that of the referenced group within the text’s hierarchical model.
Grammatically, the verse uses absolutives (gatvā, bhuktvā, pratigṛhya) to stack a sequence of completed actions leading to the stated consequence. The contrastive pair ajñānataḥ / jñānāt marks epistemic intent. The term sāmya is semantically notable: while it literally means ‘sameness/equality,’ here it functions within a hierarchical legal-ritual vocabulary to denote status assimilation rather than an ethical ideal of equality.
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