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 4.61
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
न शूद्रराज्ये निवसेन्नाधार्मिकजनावृते ।
न पाषण्डिगणाक्रान्ते नोपस्षृटेऽन्त्यजैर्नृभिः ॥ ६१ ॥na śūdrarājye nivasennādhārmikajanāvṛte |
na pāṣaṇḍigaṇākrānte nopasṣṛṭe'ntyajairnṛbhiḥ || 61 ||He shall not dwell in a country with a Śūdra King; nor in one surrounded by unrighteous persons; nor in one occupied by impostors;. nor in one frequented by men of the lowest castes.—(61)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Kingship’ consists in ruling over a country; he shall not dwell in a country which is under the sway of a Śūdra. The term ‘King’ here stands for the seven constituents of Kingship,—vis., the minister! the commander of the army, the judge, and so forth; and the present verse forbids dwelling in a country where all of them belong to the Śūdra caste.
Objection:—“It having been already said that he shall not dwell in an unrighteous village, what is meant by ‘in a country surrounded by unrighteous persons’ is already implied.”
There is no force in this objection. The former prohibition refers to dwelling in a place inhabited by unrighteous persons; while what the present verse means is that one shall not live in a place where unrighteous persons, living elsewhere, may happen to congregate. That is why the text has used the term ‘surrounded;’ the sense being that ‘one shall not stay at a place which is crowded by such persons.’
Similarly with the country swarming with ‘impostors.’ Though these also, being outside the pale of ‘Vedic religion,’ are included among the ‘unrighteous,’ yet they have been mentioned separately in consideration of the fact that they pretend to be ‘righteous.’
‘Frequented by’—associated with—‘men of the lowest castes.’ Or, ‘frequented’ may mean ‘harassed;’ e.g., the Bāhlīka country, which is frequently outrun by barbarians.—(61)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Smṛticandrikā (p. 20).
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 4.60-61)
See Comparative notes for Verse 4.60.