Verse 8.29

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

जीवन्तीनां तु तासां ये तद् हरेयुः स्वबान्धवाः ।
तांशिष्यात्चौरदण्डेन धार्मिकः पृथिवीपतिः ॥ २९ ॥

jīvantīnāṃ tu tāsāṃ ye tad hareyuḥ svabāndhavāḥ |
tāṃśiṣyātcauradaṇḍena dhārmikaḥ pṛthivīpatiḥ || 29 ||

While these women are alive, if their relatives should appropriate their property,—on them the righteous king shall inflict the punishment of thieves.—(29)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This ‘punishment of thieves’ has been laid down for those relatives who should appropriate the property of women. They appropriate her property in manifold wavs; giving out., for instance, that—‘she is not mistress of herself as regards what she gives away and what she enjoys,—I am the real owner of the; property.’

It is in view of the possibility of people thinking that such misappropriators are not ‘thieves’ that the text lays down the ‘punishment of thieves’ for them.

‘While they are alive, if the relations’—brother-in-law and others—‘should appropriate their property,—on them the king shall inflict punishment,’—shall punish them.

The ‘punishment of thieves’ is going to be described later on (verse 334)—‘With whatever limb a thief operates against men, each of those limbs the King shall cut off, in order to prevent the repetition of the act.’

What the verse means is that the property of helpless women should be specially guarded against her own relations; guarding against thieves being the duty that has been laid down for the King as owing to the entire kingdom.—(29)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (on 2.147), in support of the view that except the husband, no co-parcener should lay hands upon the property of women during their life-time;—in Aparārka (p. 752), to the effect that when the woman is dead, her relations do have a right to her Strīdhana property;—in Vivādaratnākara (p. 512); and in Vyavahāramayūkha (p. 70).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Kātyāyana (Aparārka, p. 752).—‘While the woman is alive, her husband or sons or brother-in-law or relations have no power over her strīdhana; if they take it from her, they should be punished.’

Agnipnrāṇa (Rājadharma, 222.21).—(Same as Manu.)