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...

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

ज्येष्ठेन जातमात्रेण पुत्री भवति मानवः ।
पितॄणामनृणश्चैव स तस्मात् सर्वमर्हति ॥ १०६ ॥

jyeṣṭhena jātamātreṇa putrī bhavati mānavaḥ |
pitṝṇāmanṛṇaścaiva sa tasmāt sarvamarhati || 106 ||

By the mere birth of the eldest son, a man becomes ‘with son,’ and (hence) free from the debt to Pitṛs; it is for this reason that he deserves the whole.—(106)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

(No Bhāṣya available).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Cf. Śruti—‘Nāputrasya lokosti’ (Aitareya Brāhmaṇa 7.3.9).

This verse is quoted in Virādaratnākara (p. 457), which adds the following notes:—‘Putrībhavati’, becomes one who has fulfilled the dictates of the scriptures regarding the begetting of offspring;—the addition of ‘mātra’ is meant to indicate that, the man becomes ‘with son’ even before the child has had its sacramental rites performed;—‘anṛṇaḥ’, becomes freed, by the birth of a single son, from one of the three kinds of debts which have been described in the Śruti as besetting a man from his very birth.

It is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 35);—in Parāśaramādhava (Ācarā, p. 501);—in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 163);—in Nirṇayasindhu (p. 439);—in Saṃskāra-ratnamālā (p. 686);—in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 43);—in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 656);—in Nṛsiṃhapraṣāda (Saṃskāra 25b);—in Śrāddhakriyākaumudī (pp. 450 and 491), which explains ‘putrībhavati’ as ‘becomes saved from the hell called Put’;—in Śuddhikaumudī (p. 86):—in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra 171b);—and by Jīmūtavāhana (Dāyabhāga, pp. 37 and 250) as lending support to the view that one’s title to another’s property is determined also by the benefits conferred by the former on the latter.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 9.105-110)

See Comparative notes for Verse 9.105.

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