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Mahānirvāṇa Tantra cover

॥ श्री ॥tantraFor reading

Mahānirvāṇa Tantra 11.53

Traditional

Ullāsas
14
Verses
2517
Minutes
1258
Level
advanced

Ullāsa 11 · Verse 53

उपपतौ रममाणां पत्नीं पश्यन् तयोर्विनाशे दण्डाभावःNo punishment for a husband who kills wife and lover caught together

Verse 53

रममाणामुपपतौ पश्यन् पत्नीं पतिस्तदा । निघ्नन् वनितया जारं वधार्हो नैव भूभृतः ॥ ५३ ॥

ramamāṇāmupapatau paśyan patnīṁ patistadā | nighnan vanitayā jāraṁ vadhārhō naiva bhūbhṛtaḥ || 53 ||

Translation

A husband who sees his wife with a lover and kills the lover together with the woman then and there is not deserving of death from the king.

Word by word

ramamāṇām
(ramamāṇām) enjoying herself
upapatau
with a lover
paśyan
seeing
patnīṁ
his wife
patiḥ
(patiḥ) a husband
tadā
then
nighnan
killing
vanitayā
with the woman
jāraṁ
the lover
vadha
of death
arhaḥ
(arhaḥ) deserving
na
not
ēva
at all
bhūbhṛtaḥ
(bhūbhṛtaḥ) from the king

Meaning

The ṭīkā stresses "then": a killing at another time is murder. This is the text's ruling, given as it stands. These are the penalties of the Tantra's own ideal kingdom, given as the text states them; they describe its teaching, not any present law.

Commentary

Hariharānanda Bhāratī’s Sanskrit commentary, translated

But would a husband who, seeing his wife enjoying herself with a lover, killed her along with the lover, deserve death or not? Answering Girijā's doubt, he says "ramamāṇām" and the rest. If the husband, seeing his wife enjoying herself with a lover, then kills the lover together with the woman, the husband does not deserve death from the king. By "then killing" it is suggested that one who kills at another time does deserve death.