Verse 8.386 [Summing up of the Sections relating to Criminal Law]

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

यस्य स्तेनः पुरे नास्ति नान्यस्त्रीगो न दुष्टवाक् ।
न साहसिकदण्डघ्नो स राजा शक्रलोकभाक् ॥ ३८६ ॥

yasya stenaḥ pure nāsti nānyastrīgo na duṣṭavāk |
na sāhasikadaṇḍaghno sa rājā śakralokabhāk || 386 ||

That king in whose town there is no thief, no adulterer, no defamer, no criminal, no assaulter,—attains the regions of Indra.—(386)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

That king in whoso ‘town’—kingdom—there is no thief, reaches the ‘regions of Indra’—heaven.

‘No adulterer’—who has no intercourse with a married woman, or to one married a second time. The mention of the ‘woman’ indicates that the prohibition applies to the case of all such women as are not one’s own wife, and are not related to him.

‘Defamer’—the man who commits the three kinds of defamation.

‘Criminal’—already described above.

‘Assaulter’—who commits physical violence.

‘Attains the regions of Indra’—is to be construed with each of the phrases.

This verse constitutes a hortatory supplement to the injunctions regarding the punishing of thieves and others.—(386)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara, (p. 408), which adds the following notes:—‘Duṣṭavāk,’ defamer of people,—‘daṇḍaghna,’ one who strikes people with a stick, i.e., an assaulter;—and in Vivādacintāmaṇi (p. 264).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.386-387)

Viṣṇu (5.196).—‘The King in whose dominion there exists neither thief, nor adulterer, nor calumniator, nor robber, nor murderer, attains the world of Indra.’

Cf. The Upaniṣad text, where a king is represented as saying—‘In my realm there is no thief, no miser, no drunkard, none who is not tending the Fires, nor any illiterate person, no female libertine,—whence then can there be any male libertine.’

Yama (Vivādaratnākara, p. 408).—‘Wicked persons, criminals, rogues, gamblers, oppressors,—that King in whose realm these persons are not found becomes entitled to the realm of India.’

Nārada (18.7-8).—‘Whenever wicked acts, opposed to the dictates of the sacred law, have been committed, the King, after having reflected upon the matter, shall himself inflict punishment upon those who deserve it. What is opposed to revealed and traditional law, or injurious to living beings, must not be practised by the King; wherever it is practised, he must check it.’