Verse 7.6

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

तपत्यादित्यवच्चैष चक्षूंषि च मनांसि च ।
न चैनं भुवि शक्नोति कश्चिदप्यभिवीक्षितुम् ॥ ६ ॥

tapatyādityavaccaiṣa cakṣūṃṣi ca manāṃsi ca |
na cainaṃ bhuvi śaknoti kaścidapyabhivīkṣitum || 6 ||

Like the sun, he burns the eyes and minds (of man); no one on the earth can even gaze at him.—(6)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘Burns’,—as if it were; it is so expressed, in view of the fact that people cannot gaze at him; this is what is stated in the second half.—‘No one on the Earth’— not even persons belonging to the excellent Brāhmaṇa caste, or endowed with Brahmic glory—‘can gaze at him’—look at him straight in the face. It is in view of the that it has been declared that ‘people shall sit down below while the King is seated on high’ (Gautama, 11)—(6)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 392);—in the same work (Vyavahāra, p. 5);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 16); which adds the the following explanation:—‘By his lustre he burns, like the Sun, the eyes and minds of the people that look at him’; though the verb ‘tapati’ is in the simple form, it has the sense of the causal; what is said here is based on the idea that people cannot look the king in the face; this is the purport of the second half of the verse, which means that ‘no one on earth can look the king straight in the face.’—It proceeds—“Medhātithi has remarked that even Brāhmaṇas, who are of superior caste, and who are endowed with Brahmic glory, cannot look him in the face”; and he bases this assertion on the words of Gautama (11.7) that ‘people should sit below the king who sits on high’. This however is not right, since Gautama has followed up his assertion with the saving clause ‘anye brāhmaṇebhyaḥ enam manyeran’, so that what the complete sūtra of Gautama means is—‘while the king is sitting high upon the throne, people should sit below, on the ground,—all except the Brāhmaṇas, and these latter should honour him with benedictions.’

 

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 7.3-13)

See Comparative notes for Verse 7.3.