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 10.12
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
शूद्रादायोगवः क्षत्ता चण्डालश्चाधमो नृणाम् ।
वैश्यराजन्यविप्रासु जायन्ते वर्णसङ्कराः ॥ १२ ॥śūdrādāyogavaḥ kṣattā caṇḍālaścādhamo nṛṇām |
vaiśyarājanyaviprāsu jāyante varṇasaṅkarāḥ || 12 ||From the Śūdra on the Vaiśya, the Kṣatriya and the Brāhmaṇa maiden are born the mixed castes, ‘Āyogava,’ Kṣattṛ and the ‘Caṇḍāla,’ the lowest of men.—(12)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
Here also the names are to be taken respectively.
Though the terms ‘Vaiśya’ and ‘Rājanya’ (without the feminine ending are denotative of the mere castes, yet from the force of implication they are understood to mean the girls of those castes; just as in the case of such expressions as ‘Mṛgakṣīram’ and ‘Kukkuṭāṇḍam’ (where the mṛgī, the female deer and the Kukkuṭī, the hen, are meant). The feminine endings have been dropped on account of metrical considerations.—(12)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Smṛtitattva (p. 540);—and in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 513).
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 10.6-41)
See Comparative notes for Verse 10.6.