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:

यस्तल्पजः प्रमीतस्य क्लीबस्य व्याधितस्य वा ।
स्वधर्मेण नियुक्तायां स पुत्रः क्षेत्रजः स्मृतः ॥ १६७ ॥

yastalpajaḥ pramītasya klībasya vyādhitasya vā |
svadharmeṇa niyuktāyāṃ sa putraḥ kṣetrajaḥ smṛtaḥ || 167 ||

If a son is born of the wife of a man, either dead or impotent or diseased, by one who has been duly ‘authorised,’—that son is declared to be ‘kṣetraja’ ‘soil-born.’—(167)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Diseased’—i.e., suffering from some incurable disease, such as: consumption and the like.

The rest is quite clear.—(167)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādanatnākara (p. 555), which has the following notes—‘Talpa’, wife,—‘vyādhitasaya vā’, the disease meant is of the incurable type,—‘svadharmeṇa’, according to the rules laid down, i.e., ‘smearing his body with clarified butter’ and so forth;—in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 38);—in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 540 and 557):—‘in Nṛsiṃhaparasāda (Vyavahāra 38a);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra 187b).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Baudhāyana (2.3.17-18).—‘He who is begotten by another man, on the wife of a deceased man, or of a eunuch, or of a man incurably deceased, after she has been authorised,—is called the Kṣetraja, son begotten on one’s wife by another man;—such a son has two fathers and belongs to two families; he has the right to offer the funeral oblations and to inherit the property of his two fathers.’

Vaśiṣṭha (17.14).—‘The second is the Kṣetraja son, who is begotten by an authorised kinsman on the wife of a person who has failed (by death or disease),’

Viṣṇu (15.3).—‘The second is the Kṣetraja son, who is begotten by a sapiṇḍa kinsman, or by a member of the highest caste, on an authorised wife or widow.’

Yājñavalkya (2.12).—‘Th e Kṣetraja son is that begotten on one’s wife by a Sagotra or other kinsman.’

Arthaśāstra (p. 40).—‘The Kṣetraja son is that begotten on one’s wife by a Sagotra kinsman, or a kinsman not belonging to the same gotra—who is authorised to do so.’

Hārīta (Vivādaratnākara, p. 557).—‘The son begotten by another while the woman’s husband is alive is called Kṣetraja; and when begotten after his death is called Dvyāmuṣyāyaṇa.’

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