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:

ऋग्वेदो देवदैवत्यो यजुर्वेदस्तु मानुषः ।
सामवेदः स्मृतः पित्र्यस्तस्मात् तस्याशुचिर्ध्वनिः ॥ १२४ ॥

ṛgvedo devadaivatyo yajurvedastu mānuṣaḥ |
sāmavedaḥ smṛtaḥ pitryastasmāt tasyāśucirdhvaniḥ || 124 ||

The Ṛgveda is sacred to the gods and the Yajurveda is human; the Sāmaveda has been declared to be related to the Pitṛs; hence its sound is impure.—(124)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

It, has been declared that when Sāma-Veda is being chanted, the time is unfit for the reciting of the Ṛgveda and the Yajurveda. Supplementary to this, we have the present statement.

Sacred to the pods;’—i.e., that of which the gods are the presiding genius; that is, which consists entirley of hymns to the gods. As a matter of fact, hymns form the principal part of the Ṛgveda; it is for this reason that it is called ‘sacred to the gods.’

As a matter of fact, action forms the predominating element in Men; and, since the Yajurveda is made up principally of injunctions regarding Action, the Yajurveda is, on account of this analogy, said to be ‘human.’ The term ‘mānuṣa’ denotes the genus ‘man;’ and, by a process of identification, the Yajurveda has been called ‘human.’

Related to the Pitṛs’—may be taken to mean—either ‘beneficial to the Pitṛs,’ or ‘of which the Pitṛs are the presiding genius;’ by some sort of relationship, the Sāma-Veda has been called ‘related to the Pitṛs.’

There are three regions, and of these there, are three presiding beings; the gods of Heaven, the Men of the Earth and the Pitṛs of the sky. Similarly, there are three Vedas; and, since two of these have been spoken of as related to ‘gods’ and ‘men,’ respectively, the third, Sāma Veda, is, by a process of elimination, declared to be ‘related to the Pitṛs.’

Its sound is impure’.—The sound of the Sāmaveda should not he understood, by this, to be really impure; all that is meant is that, just as Veda should not be recited in the presence of an impure substance, so should it not he recited in the presence of the Sāma-chant; it is on the ground of this similarity to ‘impure substances’ that the sound of Sāma has been said to be ‘impure.’

From the context it is clear that this prohibition during Sāma-chant, pertains to the reciting of the Ṛgveda and the Yajurveda in course of the regular ‘Vedic study’ that, has been prescribed; and not to the reciting of Mantra-texts that is done in the course of scrifical performances.—(124)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 534), which adds that according to a declaration by Āpastamba, the time, during which the Ṛk and other Vedas are recited, is unfit for the chanting of the Sāman;—in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 160), as stating the reason for what has been declared in the preceding verse;—in Puruṣārthacintāmaṇi (p. 443);—and in Hemādri (Kāla, p. 768),—in all these to the same effect.

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