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 7.74
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
एकः शतं योधयति प्राकारस्थो धनुर्धरः ।
शतं दशसहस्राणि तस्माद् दुर्गं विधीयते ॥ ७४ ॥ekaḥ śataṃ yodhayati prākārastho dhanurdharaḥ |
śataṃ daśasahasrāṇi tasmād durgaṃ vidhīyate || 74 ||A single bow-man, standing on a rampart, can fight against a hundred; and a hundred can fight against ten thousand; it is for the season that fortification has been enjoined.—(74).
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This use of the fort is well known.
Some people have held that the example of the ‘rampart’ indicates that this refers to the ‘hill-fort’. But this is not right; because ramparts are possible in ‘earthen forts’ also. Hence the use here described must refer to all kinds of forts.—(71)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 202);—in Vīramitrodaya (Lakṣaṇa, p. 238);—in Nītimayūkha (p. 65), which says that even if the attack is made by men ten times the number of the garrison, they are repulsed;—and in Rājanītiratnākara (p. 20a).