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 8.409
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
एष नौयायिनामुक्तो व्यवहारस्य निर्णयः ।
दाशापराधतस्तोये दैविके नास्ति निग्रहः ॥ ४०९ ॥eṣa nauyāyināmukto vyavahārasya nirṇayaḥ |
dāśāparādhatastoye daivike nāsti nigrahaḥ || 409 ||This law has been laid down in connection with suits by boat-passengers relating to the negligence of boatmen in water; there is no punishment in the case of accidents due to heaven.—(409)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Boat-passengers’—persons habituated to going about a boats.
It is with regard to these that this law has been laid down, that ‘if anything should be damaged by the fault of the boatmen, it shall be made good by them.’
‘In the case of accidents due to heaven’—i.e., when the boat breaks as the result of an accident due to storm or such causes, and commodities happen to be damaged,—no punishment is to be inflicted upon the boatmen.
This same law applies to the carriers of goods on land also. If the carrier walks along with due care, supporting himself by a staff, and has duly tied up the bundles, if he happens to tumble down on the road which has suddenly been rendered slippery by rain, and the goods he is carrying become damaged in consequence,—whose fault could it be held to be?—(409)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 641).