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:

तौ तु जातौ परक्षेत्रे प्राणिनौ प्रेत्य चैह च ।
दत्तानि हव्यकव्यानि नाशयन्ति प्रदायिनाम् ॥ १७५ ॥

tau tu jātau parakṣetre prāṇinau pretya caiha ca |
dattāni havyakavyāni nāśayanti pradāyinām || 175 ||

These creatures, born of other men’s wives, cause, for the giver, the destruction, in this life as well as after death, of their offerings to gods and pitṛs that have been presented to them.—(175)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The plural number in ‘prāṇinaḥ,’ ‘creatures,’ is according to Pāṇini 1.2,58.

These people do not deserve the names of ‘Brāhmaṇa,’ and the rest; and they only deserve to be called ‘creatures;’ they are not worthy of any other name. For this reason, they ‘cause the destruction of the offerings to gods and Pitṛs;’—i.e.,. they render them fruitless—‘for the givers’—those who give it to them.

The terms ‘parivettṛ’ (superseder) and the rest are not sufficiently well known in ordinary usage; nor are they capable of being etymologically analysed. Hence, the author has provided the definition of these.—(175)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 362).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.174-175)

See Comparative notes for Verse 3.175.

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