Verse 8.82

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

साक्ष्येऽनृतं वदन् पाशैर्बध्यते वारुणैर्भृशम् ।
विवशः शतमाजातीस्तस्मात् साक्ष्यं वदेद् ऋतम् ॥ ८२ ॥

sākṣye'nṛtaṃ vadan pāśairbadhyate vāruṇairbhṛśam |
vivaśaḥ śatamājātīstasmāt sākṣyaṃ vaded ṛtam || 82 ||

‘Stating the untruth in his evidence, he becomes firmly bound in Varuṇa’s fetters, helpless during a hundred births. One should, therefore, give true evidence.’—(82)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The preceding verse encourages the witnesses by putting before them the spiritual and temporal results following from the telling of truth; the present verso describes how results accrue from saying what is contrary to truth; and the purpose of this also is to induce the witness to tell the truth.

‘Sākṣya,’ ‘evidence,’ is the work of the witness; in that work, stating what is not true, the man becomes ‘bound’—tormented—‘in Varuṇa’s fetters,’—‘firmly’—to a very great extent;—‘helpless’— rendered totally dependent on others, even in regard to the operations of speech and the eyes,—‘during a hundred births.’

‘Varuṇa’s fetters’ are in the shape of terrible snakes or in the form of the disease of dropsy.

In order to guard against such calamities, the witness should state the truth;—such is the sense of the injunction implied by the text.

In the term ‘ājātīḥ,’ the initial ā is not the indeclinable ‘āṅ’ which denotes limit; for, if it were that or we would have the Ablative ending. Hence it is to be taken as a preposition meaning nothing; just like the preposition ‘pra’ in such words as ‘pralambate’ and the like. The case-ending also is the Accusative. What the term signifies is repetition; the meaning being that the man sutlers from dropsy repeatedly during one hundred births.—(82)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

“Dropsy is a disease specially attributed to Varuṇa (see Ṛgveda 7.89.1, and the story of Śunaḥśepha, Aitareya Brāhmaṇa 7.15). The fetters of Varuṇa are mentioned as the punishment of liars in the Atharva Veda, 4.16.6.”—Buhler.

This verse is quoted in Smṛticandrikā (Vyavahāra, p. 199);—in Kṛtyakalpataru (33b), which explains ‘śatam-ājātīḥ’ as ‘during a hundred lives’;—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra, 53b).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.79-86)

See Comparative notes for Verse 8.79.