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:

सत्यमर्थं च सम्पश्येदात्मानमथ साक्षिणः ।
देशं रूपं च कालं च व्यवहारविधौ स्थितः ॥ ४५ ॥

satyamarthaṃ ca sampaśyedātmānamatha sākṣiṇaḥ |
deśaṃ rūpaṃ ca kālaṃ ca vyavahāravidhau sthitaḥ || 45 ||

When engaged in judicial proceedings, the king shall keep his eye upon the truth, upon the object, upon himself, the witness and upon the place, the time and the aspect.—(45)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

When engaged in’—dealing with—‘judicial proceedings’— the king shall attend, not only to the mere letter of the suit itself, but also to truth, etc.

(a) ‘Keep his eye upon the truth’;—even though the plaintiff or the defendant, through shyness, may not have stated his case fully, yet if the king is enabled,—either on the strength of other proofs, or by means of the ‘inference’ mentioned above,—to find out what the actual facts of the case are, then he shall, by all means accept them,—and not reject them, simply because the party concerned did not state them in full. This is what has been thus declared—‘Having sifted all fraud, the king shall decide the case on facts.’ (Yājñavalkya, Vyavahāra 19.)

(b) ‘Keep eye upon the object’;—the term ‘artha,’ ‘object,’ denotes wealth or purpose. The meaning thus is that if he obtains a large amount of wealth (as the legal fee), then he shall even give up all other business of state and not hesitate to take up the ease brought up; in fact he shall begin the investigation at once. Or, the meaning may be that if some one tells him that the witnesses in the case, or some member of the Court, have received large amounts in bribe from such and such a party,—then he should examine this statement in the following manner.—‘If the cause of the suit is insignificant, the acceptance of a large bribe is not possible;—but if the cause is worth much, and the members of the court and the witnesses are in poor circumstances, then it is just possible’; and the truth shall he found out by other means. This is to be done by making (c) ‘himself’ the ‘witness’ (d). That is to say, with a view to tracing out the bad characters in his kingdom, he shall get spies to find out the truth.

Or ‘having an eye upon himself’ (e) may mean that he must attend to his own circumstances,—i.e., he should see whether his treasury is depleted or full.

Under this construction ‘witness’ is an independent word (and not in apposition to ‘himself,’ as in the former interpretation).

(e) ‘Having an eye upon the place’;—in certain places even a small object becomes great, while in another even a great object becomes small. This is what is meant by ‘having an eye upon the place.’

(f) Similarly he should have his eye upon the time also.

(g) ‘Aspect’ stands for the nature of the cause; he shall find out whether it is important or unimportant.

Others have explained the verse as follows:—‘He shall find out the real nature of (a) the truth and (b) the object of the suit, by making (c) himself the witness (d); that is to say, he shall find out that truth is more important than any object, since it accomplishes very important ends and is useful in both worlds, and hence he should always have recourse to truth, and ignore the object, which is devoid of essence. (e) ‘Place,’ in this case stands for heaven and the other regions, obtainable by means of truth; (f) ‘time’ for a prolonged stay in other regions, and (g) ‘aspect’ for the beauty of the celestial damsels. And the reverse of all this is obtained by the renouncing of truth and the following of other objects.—(45).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Artham’—The value of the suit and the motive behind it’ (Medhātithi);—‘such suit as deals with things of value, like cattle, gold and the like’ (Kullūka);—‘money realisable by fine’ (Nārāyaṇa);—‘the aim’ (Nandana).

Ātmānam sākśiṇam’—‘Looking upon himself as the witness’; or ‘looking upon his own position, and that of the witness adduced’ (Medhātithi);—Kullūka and others have the latter explanation only.

Deśam kālam’—‘Considerations of the place and time of the offence committed’ (Medhātithi and Rāghavānanda); ‘what is befitting the time and place’ (Kullūka);—‘customs of the country and what is befitting the time’ (Nārāyaṇa); ‘place of offence and age of the offender’ (Govindarāja); ‘Heavy and continued residence there’ (‘others’ in Medhātithi).

Rūpam’—‘Aspect of the case’ (Medhātithi, Kullūka and Nandana);—‘looks of the parties’ (Narāyaṇa and Rāghavānanda);—‘beauty of the celestial damsels’ (‘others’ in Medhātithi),

This verse is quoted in Kṛtyakalpataru (p. 5a), which has the following notes:—‘Satyam paśyet’, the meaning is that even though the statements of the two parties are not clear enough to justify a decision, yet if, by inference and other means, the king is able to form some decision, he should fix upon that;—‘artham’, gold, cattle and other kinds of property;—‘ātmānam’, he should look upon himself as participating in the effects of the trial;—‘rūpam’, form of the object in dispute, i.e., its importance or otherwise.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Yājñavalkya (2.19).—‘The King shall investigate suits, by setting aside mistake or casuistry by facts.’

Nārada (1.29-31).—‘Truth rests on true facts; Error is what rests on mistake of facts. Ordeals even are rendered nugatory by artful men; therefore let no mistake be committed in regard to place, time, quantity and so on. A king who acts justly must reject error when it is brought forward and seek truth alone; because prosperity depends on due performance of duty.’

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