Verse 8.95

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

अन्धो मत्स्यानिवाश्नाति स नरः कण्टकैः सह ।
यो भाषतेऽर्थवैकल्यमप्रत्यक्षं सभां गतः ॥ ९५ ॥

andho matsyānivāśnāti sa naraḥ kaṇṭakaiḥ saha |
yo bhāṣate'rthavaikalyamapratyakṣaṃ sabhāṃ gataḥ || 95 ||

‘He who, having entered the court, bears testimony to what is contrary to facts and what he has not seen, swallows fish along with the bones,—just like a blind man.’—(95)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The pleasure produced by the eating of the fish is not equal to the pain caused by the swallowing of the bones; similarly, there is a slight pleasure produced by the little money that is received (as bribe), but the subsequent suffering is very great; it is on this basis that the analogy of fish-eating has been cited.—(95)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Smṛticandrikā (Vyavahāra, p. 205), whiqḥ says that according to some

people, this and the preceding two verses are to be addressed to witnesses of the lower order only; hence in ordinary cases, after ‘kurūn gamaḥ’, the exhortation should begin with ‘yāvato bāndhavān &c.’ (verse 97);—these exhortations are to be addressed to Śūdras and to poverty-stricken twice-born persons also;—and in Kṛtyakalpataru (35b).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.89-97)

[See the texts under 79 et seq.]