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Upanishads · Dattātreya 3.4
॥
Devanāgarī
शतपूर्वाञ्छतापरान्पुनाति । स पङ्क्तिपावनो भवति
Transliteration (IAST)
śatapūrvāñchatāparānpunāti | sa paṅktipāvano bhavati
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
शत-पूर्वान् शत-अपरान् पुनातिśata-pūrvān śata-aparān punātihe purifies a hundred ancestors and a hundred descendants
सः पङ्क्ति-पावनः भवतिsaḥ paṅkti-pāvanaḥ bhavatihe becomes the purifier of the row
Translation
«He purifies a hundred [generations] before and a hundred after [in the lineage]; he becomes the purifier of the row».
Version
2a8d0f5d582c · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
The promise is extended to the lineage, and we examined this reading the Śāṭyāyanīya (30); no need to repeat it. Let us add here one expression not met before: paṅkti-pāvana, “purifier of the row.” Paṅkti means “row,” and denotes a row of diners: in the old custom, one ate seated in a row, and not everyone could sit in the same row.
Hence paṅkti-pāvana literally means: one whose presence in the row purifies the whole row — that is, one in whose presence anyone at all may eat. This expression is, to my mind, remarkable and worth stating, for it strikes at the most sensitive point of the old custom. Shared eating was the chief divider there: whom one could eat with and whom not measured a person's standing.
And it is said: such a person abolishes the division. The Vaiṣṇava side stands on this and has a direct practice for it: it eats prasāda, “grace,” and eats it all together, for what has been offered to Him cannot be impure. Its ground was cited reading the Prāṇāgnihotra and states: division applies to food prepared for oneself; but what has returned from Him is not subject to division.
Hence the shared meal has become its chief social custom; and it is, in essence, the fulfillment of this very word: whoever sits down is purified by the row.