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:

स्त्रीबालोन्मत्तवृद्धानां दरिद्राणां च रोगिणाम् ।
शिफाविदलरज्ज्वाद्यैर्विदध्यात्नृपतिर्दमम् ॥ २३० ॥

strībālonmattavṛddhānāṃ daridrāṇāṃ ca rogiṇām |
śiphāvidalarajjvādyairvidadhyātnṛpatirdamam || 230 ||

On women, boys, men out of their minds, the old, the poor and the sick, the king shall inflict punishment with creepers, barks, ropes and so forth.—(230)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Punishment’.—The persons meant, here are such poor people as are incapable of doing labour. As these would stand on the same footing as the ‘great sinners’, they shall be chastised with the creeper etc.

Śiphā’ is creeper, and ‘vidala’—tree-bark.—(230)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 658), which adds that the term ‘daridra’ here stands for that impecunious person who is unable to render any compensatory service;—in Parāśaramādhava (Vyavahāra, p. 159);—and in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 880).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Kātyāyana (Vivādaratnākara, p. 655).—‘Untouchables, rogues and slaves, those who have committed sins and those born of inverse marriages should suffer beating, and not monetary punishment.’

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