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 9.67
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
स महीमखिलां भुञ्जन् राजर्षिप्रवरः पुरा ।
वर्णानां सङ्करं चक्रे कामोपहतचेतनः ॥ ६७ ॥sa mahīmakhilāṃ bhuñjan rājarṣipravaraḥ purā |
varṇānāṃ saṅkaraṃ cakre kāmopahatacetanaḥ || 67 ||In ancient times that chief of royal sages, possessing the whole world, brought about the confusion of castes, having his mind beset with lust.—(67)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Possessing,’—ruling over.
“When the King brought about the confusion of castes, how can he be called the chief of royal sages?”
The answer is that possessing the whole Earth, he was a great King, but he had his ‘mind’— mental equanimity—‘besat’—destroyed—‘by lust’—in the shape of carnal desires and so forth.—(67)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 738 and in Vyavahāra, 186a).
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 9.60-68)
See Comparative notes for Verse 9.60.