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 9.157
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
शूद्रस्य तु सवर्णैव नान्या भार्या विधीयते ।
तस्यां जाताः समांशाः स्युर्यदि पुत्रशतं भवेत् ॥ १५७ ॥śūdrasya tu savarṇaiva nānyā bhāryā vidhīyate |
tasyāṃ jātāḥ samāṃśāḥ syuryadi putraśataṃ bhavet || 157 ||For the Śūdra is ordained a wife of his own caste only, and no other; and all the sons born of her shall be entitled to equal shares, even if there be a hundred sons.—(157)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
For the Śūdra there is no irregular wife of the ‘ascending’ degree.
This is only a reiteration of what has been said before.
‘Other sons born of her shall be entitled to equal shares.’
It is in view of there being no fifth caste that, the text has said that ‘for the Śūdra there is a wife of the same caste, and no other.’—(157)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This Verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 532);—and in Smṛtitattva II (p. 193), which quotes and accepts the explanation given by Kullūka that this is meant to preclude the ‘additional share’ prescribed in the preceding verse.
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 9.149-157)
See Comparative notes for Verse 9.149.