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 6.59
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
अल्पान्नाभ्यवहारेण रहःस्थानासनेन च ।
ह्रियमाणानि विषयैरिन्द्रियाणि निवर्तयेत् ॥ ५९ ॥alpānnābhyavahāreṇa rahaḥsthānāsanena ca |
hriyamāṇāni viṣayairindriyāṇi nivartayet || 59 ||By eating little food and by standing and sitting in solitude, he shall restrain his senses, when attracted by sensual objects.—(59).
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘In solitude’—in a place devoid of people—he shall stand and sit.
This indicates that ‘subjugation of the senses’ is the result of living in solitude. Or, it may be taken to be indicative of freedom from curiosity.
He shall not stay even for a moment at a place where large number of people, men and women, with various kinds of dress and ornaments, congregate.—(59)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Aparārka, (p. 954);—in Parāśaramādhava, (Ācāra, p. 570);—and in Yatidharmasaṅgraha (p. 34).
Comparative notes by various authors
Baudhāyana (2.18.10-13).—‘Giving, compassionately, portions of the food to living beings and sprinkling the remainder with water, he shall eat it as if it were a medicine... He shall eat food, given without asking, regarding which nothing has been stipulated beforehand and which has reached him accidentally; so much only as is sufficient to sustain life They quote the following:—“Eight mouthfuls make the meal of a Renunciate, etc., etc.”’
Vaśiṣṭha (10-25).—‘He shall never eat to satiation.’