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 10.108
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
क्षुधार्तश्चात्तुमभ्यागाद् विश्वामित्रः श्वजाघनीम् ।
चण्डालहस्तादादाय धर्माधर्मविचक्षणः ॥ १०८ ॥kṣudhārtaścāttumabhyāgād viśvāmitraḥ śvajāghanīm |
caṇḍālahastādādāya dharmādharmavicakṣaṇaḥ || 108 ||Viśvāmitra, expert in the knowledge of right and wrong, when tormented by hunger, proceeded to eat the haunch of a dog, receiving it from the hands of a Caṇḍāla.—(108)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
Viśvāmitra is a well-known great sage. On one occasion, when he suffered much from hunger, ‘he proceeded to eat the haunch of a dog, receiving it from the hands of a Carṇḍāla.’
The ‘dog’s haunch’ has been mentioned with a view to show that there is harm in the eating of not only such food as has been defiled, but also of that which is defective by its very nature;—the sense of the verse being that in times of distress one may take even such food as is tainted with all kinds of defects.—(108)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
See Mahābhārata 12.141.28 etc. seg.
This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 935);—in Madanapārijāta (p. 234). which explains ‘śvajāghanī’ as the loins of a dog;—and in Parāśaramadhava (Prāyaścitta p. 326).
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 10.101-108)
See Comparative notes for Verse 10.101.