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 5.30
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
नात्ता दुष्यत्यदन्नाद्यान् प्राणिनोऽहन्य्ऽहन्यपि ।
धात्रैव सृष्टा ह्याद्याश्च प्राणिनोऽत्तार एव च ॥ ३० ॥nāttā duṣyatyadannādyān prāṇino'hany'hanyapi |
dhātraiva sṛṣṭā hyādyāśca prāṇino'ttāra eva ca || 30 ||The eater incurs no sin by eating, even daily, such animals as are eatable: since the eater as well as the eaten animals have been created by the creator himself—(30).
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Eater’—one who eats.
‘Eatable’—which are capable of being eaten. He incurs no sin even by eating them daily.
By the ‘Creator’—Prajāpati—himself— have been created both the enter and the eaten.
For this reason when there is danger to life, meat must be eaten. This is the sense of the three verses, which are purely comemendstory—(30).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Ālinika, p. 527).
Comparative notes by various authors
Viṣṇu (51.61).—‘Animals have been created for purposes of the sacrifice... hence killing at sacrifice is no killing.’