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 9.23
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
अक्षमाला वसिष्ठेन संयुक्ताऽधमयोनिजा ।
शारङ्गी मन्दपालेन जगामाभ्यर्हणीयताम् ॥ २३ ॥akṣamālā vasiṣṭhena saṃyuktā'dhamayonijā |
śāraṅgī mandapālena jagāmābhyarhaṇīyatām || 23 ||The low-born Akṣamālā united with Vaśiṣṭha, and the doe united with Mandapālū, became worthy of worship.—(23)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
Even though born of a low caste, Akṣamālā, the wife of Vaśiṣṭha, became, through that union, ‘worthy of worship’.
Similarly the ‘doe’ though an animal, on becoming united with the sage Mandapāla, ‘became worthy of worship.’
Thus it is that even low-born women, belonging to the lower castes, came to be honoured like their husbands; as it has been said that ‘women are honoured by their age’.—(23).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
“The story of Mandapāla is told in the Mahābhārata 1.8335, adhyāya 229”—Buhler.
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 416), which reads ‘śārṅgī’, with Medhātithi.