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:

अपि यत् सुकरं कर्म तदप्येकेन दुष्करम् ।
विशेषतोऽसहायेन किं तु राज्यं महोदयम् ॥ ५५ ॥

api yat sukaraṃ karma tadapyekena duṣkaram |
viśeṣato'sahāyena kiṃ tu rājyaṃ mahodayam || 55 ||

Even an undertaking that is easy is difficult to be accomplished by a single man, specially by one who has no assistant; how much more so is the work of the king, which involves great issues!—(55)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The ordinary household work of the householder,—such as looking after cattle, house and the rest—has been regarded as ‘easy’; the same man tends the cattle and milks the cow. But even so all this cannot be clone by a single man; it is still more difficult if the man happens to have no one to assist him; how can he take the cattle to graze, and at the same time look after his wife? As for ‘the work of the king’, it is an important undertaking and leads to important results; its proper accomplishment bears important fruits, and important results accrue to the man who fulfills it. But a single man cannot be expected to know all the six ‘means of success’. Hence it it necessary for the king to appoint to the several departments of state trusted assistants, who are possessed of qualifications similar to those of the king himself.—(55)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Virāmitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 177);—and in Virāmitrodaya (Lakṣaṇa, p. 215).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 7.54-55)

See Comparative notes for Verse 7.54.

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