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:

ऋषिभ्यः पितरो जाताः पितृभ्यो देवमानवाः ।
देवेभ्यस्तु जगत् सर्वं चरं स्थाण्वनुपूर्वशः ॥ २०१ ॥

ṛṣibhyaḥ pitaro jātāḥ pitṛbhyo devamānavāḥ |
devebhyastu jagat sarvaṃ caraṃ sthāṇvanupūrvaśaḥ || 201 ||

From the sages were born the Pitṛs, Gods and Men; and from the gods the entire world, moveable and immoveable, in due order.—(201)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The rite in honour of the Pitṛs should not be looked upon as inferior to that in honour of the gods; in fact, the former is the more important of the two; because by birth, the Pitṛs are elder than the gods. For, the order of creation is that the Pitṛs were born from the sages, and the gods were born from the Pitṛs, and from the gods, the whole of the rest of the world—‘moveable’—animate—as well as ‘immoveable’—inanimate.

In due order’—the order having been already described under Discourse I.

The entire series of purely laudatory descriptions has now come to an end.—(201)

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