Verse 8.310

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

अधार्मिकं त्रिभिर्न्यायैर्निगृह्णीयात् प्रयत्नतः ।
निरोधनेन बन्धेन विविधेन वधेन च ॥ ३१० ॥

adhārmikaṃ tribhirnyāyairnigṛhṇīyāt prayatnataḥ |
nirodhanena bandhena vividhena vadhena ca || 310 ||

He shall carefully suppress the unrighteous by three modes (of restraint)—by imprisonment, by enchaining and by various forms of ‘immolation.’—(310)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Having duly emphasised, by means of valedictory declarations, the duty of restraining thieves, the text proceeds to lay down the law regarding punishments.

‘The unrighteous’—stands, in this context, for the thief; him the king shall ‘suppress’—keep in cheek—‘by three modes of restraint,’— the term ‘nyāy? (nyāya?)’ being used in the literal sense of ‘restraint.’

‘Imprisonment,’—confinement in the royal fort, or in the prison-house.

‘Enchaining’— keeping in the prison-house, but in chains. ‘Various forms of immolation,’—i.e., beginning from beating and ending with actual death caused by the killing of the body.

That the methods of restraint are three would have been clear from the enumeration itself; hence the addition of the epithet ‘three’ is to be taken as serving the purpose of indicating that there are other methods of restraint also; such as the pouring of heated oil and so forth.—(310)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 630), which adds the following notes:—‘Adhārmikam’ means, from the context, the thief,—‘nyāyaiḥ’, restraints, checks,—‘nirodhana’, throwing into prison,—‘bandha’, restricting freedom by means of chains and so forth, —‘vividhena vadhena’, in the form of beating and the like.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.310-311)

Nārada (Theft, 61).—‘Let the King practise the duties of his office, and follow the rule of inflicting punishments, faithful to the tenets of the sacred law. Let him accordingly, as governor, destroy the evil-doers, after having traced them by the application of cunning stratagems and arrested them.’

Bṛhaspati (27.4 et seq.).—‘When he has discovered an offender, the King shall inflict one of the various kinds of punishments on him, viz., gentle admonition, harsh reproof, corporal punishment, or one of the four gradations of fines; he shall inflict gentle admonition when the offence is very light; harsh reproof, for a crime of the first degree; a fine for crime of the middle degree, and arrest in the case of high treason. Banishment also may be resorted to by the King.’