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 8.306
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
रक्षन् धर्मेण भूतानि राजा वध्यांश्च घातयन् ।
यजतेऽहरहर्यज्ञैः सहस्रशतदक्षिणैः ॥ ३०६ ॥rakṣan dharmeṇa bhūtāni rājā vadhyāṃśca ghātayan |
yajate'haraharyajñaiḥ sahasraśatadakṣiṇaiḥ || 306 ||The king who, according to the law, protects all creatures and strikes them who deserve to be struck, offers, day by day, sacrifices at which hundreds of thousands are given away.—(306)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Creatures’—movable as well as immovable beings.
‘Protects’—these from thieves.
‘Striking those who deserve to be struck’—who are liable, under law, to the penalty of death.
Such a king daily acquires the merit of performing such sacrifices ‘at which hundreds of thousands are given away’—e.g., the Pauṇḍarīka and the rest. This has been added by way of praise of the act—(306)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 254);—in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra p. 397);—and in Vivādacintāmaṇi (p. 263).