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...

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

गुरुवत् प्रतिपूज्याः स्युः सवर्णा गुरुयोषितः ।
असवर्णास्तु सम्पूज्याः प्रत्युत्थानाभिवादनैः ॥ २१० ॥

guruvat pratipūjyāḥ syuḥ savarṇā guruyoṣitaḥ |
asavarṇāstu sampūjyāḥ pratyutthānābhivādanaiḥ || 210 ||

The teacher’s ladies belonging to the same caste should be honoured like the teacher himself; those not belonging to the same caste should be honoured with rising and salutations.—(210)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The teacher’s ladies’—wives—‘belonging to the same caste’—of the same caste as the teacher,—‘should be honoured like the teacher’—by carrying out their orders and so forth.

Those not belonging to the same caste’ are to be honoured only ‘with rising and salutations.’ The plural number in ‘salutations’ has the sense of ‘et cetera’: hence the doing of what is agreeable and beneficial, the non-mimicking of gait, etc., also become included.—(210)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

The verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 300) and in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 402);—in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, pp. 103 and 123) as indicating the figurative use of the title ‘guru’;—and in Smṛtikaustubha (p. 478).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Viṣṇu (32.2,5).—‘ Also the wives of these;—of such wives of the teachers as belong to lower castes, the salutation should be done from a distance; there should be no clasping of the feet.’

Gautama (2. 38).—‘Similarly towards the wives and sons of the teachers.’

Āpastamba Dharmasūtra (1. 7.27).—‘The behaviour towards the teacher’s wives should be similar to that towards the teacher; with the exception of the clasping of the feet and the eating of the leavings.’

Baudhāyana (1.2.38).—‘In the case of the teacher’s wife, one should avoid hair-dressing, dressing, bathing and eating of the leavings.’

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