Manusmriti with the Commentary of Medhatithi
by Ganganatha Jha | 1920 | 1,381,940 words | ISBN-10: 8120811550 | ISBN-13: 9788120811553
This is the English translation of the Manusmriti, which is a collection of Sanskrit verses dealing with ‘Dharma’, a collective name for human purpose, their duties and the law. Various topics will be dealt with, but this volume of the series includes 12 discourses (adhyaya). The commentary on this text by Medhatithi elaborately explains various t...
Verse 1.43 [The Viviparous, Oviparous, Sweat-born and Vegetable Beings]
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
पशवश्च मृगाश्चैव व्यालाश्चोभयतोदतः ।
रक्षांसि च पिशाचाश्च मनुष्याश्च जरायुजाः ॥ ४३ ॥paśavaśca mṛgāścaiva vyālāścobhayatodataḥ |
rakṣāṃsi ca piśācāśca manuṣyāśca jarāyujāḥ || 43 ||Cattle, Deer, Wild Beasts with two rows of teeth, Rākṣasas, Piśācas and Men are viviparous.—(43)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
These are ‘viviparous,’ ‘born from the Jarāyu’; Jarāyu is the womb, the place where the fœtus lies; it is in the womb that these beings are conceived first, and it is only when they are emitted from the womb that they become born; this is the manner of the birth of these beings.
The term ‘dat’ is synonymous with ‘danta,’ and is totally different from it; hence it is that we have the nominative plural form ‘ubhayatodataḥ’ (‘with two rows of teeth’).—(43)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
‘Ubhayatodataḥ’—A compound difficult to explain. The word ‘danta’ becomes transformed into ‘dat’ only in special cases, laid down in Pāṇini 5.4.141-145. The only explanation possible is that given by Medhātithi,—that the term ‘dat’ is an entirely different word from ‘danta’