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 9.99
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
एतत् तु न परे चक्रुर्नापरे जातु साधवः ।
यदन्यस्य प्रतिज्ञाय पुनरन्यस्य दीयते ॥ ९९ ॥etat tu na pare cakrurnāpare jātu sādhavaḥ |
yadanyasya pratijñāya punaranyasya dīyate || 99 ||Good men, both ancient and modern, have never committed the act, that having promised to one they gave her to another.—(99)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
It has been declared above that—‘when the nuptial fee has been received, and the giver of the fee has died, the girl may be given to another man, if she consents.’ This is what is forbidden by the present text,—i.e., the act. of promising the girl to man who has paid the fee, and then to give her to another after receiving a fee from him.
What is meant is that in such cases the girl should be made to choose her own husband.—(99)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Saṃskāramayūkha (p. 104), which says that this refers to cases where no defects have been discovered in the bride-groom;—in Saṃskāra-ratnamālā (p. 503), which has the same note;—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 218), which says that this refers to cases where the bride-groom has no defects.
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 9.98-100)
See Comparative notes for Verse 9.98.