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 10.124
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
प्रकल्प्या तस्य तैर्वृत्तिः स्वकुटुम्बाद् यथार्हतः ।
शक्तिं चावेक्ष्य दाक्ष्यं च भृत्यानां च परिग्रहम् ॥ १२४ ॥prakalpyā tasya tairvṛttiḥ svakuṭumbād yathārhataḥ |
śaktiṃ cāvekṣya dākṣyaṃ ca bhṛtyānāṃ ca parigraham || 124 ||They should provide out of their family, a suitable maintenance for him, after considering his own capacity, and the man’s skill and the burden of persons to be supported by him.—(124)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
What is here laid down is the duty of the twice-born men (who engage Śūdras). When the Śūdra is serving them, they should provide for his maintenance, ‘out of their,family’;—that is, he should be looked after like a son.
‘Having considered’ his own ‘capacity,’ as also, the man’s ‘skill’—application to work, and ‘the burden of persons to be supported by him,’—i.e., his wife and children, they shall take into consideration all the persons to be supported by him, and make provision for the maintenance of all these.—(124)