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 8.322
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
पञ्चाशतस्त्वभ्यधिके हस्तच्छेदनमिष्यते ।
शेषे त्वेकादशगुणं मूल्याद् दण्डं प्रकल्पयेत् ॥ ३२२ ॥pañcāśatastvabhyadhike hastacchedanamiṣyate |
śeṣe tvekādaśaguṇaṃ mūlyād daṇḍaṃ prakalpayet || 322 ||In the case of more than fifty, the cutting off of the hands is prescribed. In other cases, the king shall inflict a fine of eleven times the value.—(322)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This verse is easily understood.
‘Eleven times the value.’—It is not only that the stolen article is to be restored; for sometimes it may so happen that a thing of the same kind is not available. Hence money or grain may be given in exchange.—(322)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 323);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra, 152a).
Comparative notes by various authors
Viṣṇu (5.81-82).—‘A stealer of gold, silver, or clothes of a value of more than fifty māṣas, shall lose both hands; he who steals a less amount than that shall pay eleven times its value as fine.’
Nārada (Theft, 27).—(See under 321.)
Do. (Vivādaratnākara, p. 323).—‘For the stealing of things sold by weight, grains and nuts, and other things more valuable than wood and the vest, the fine shall be ten times the value of the article stolen.’