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 11.8
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
शक्तः परजने दाता स्वजने दुःखजीविनि ।
मध्वापातो विषास्वादः स धर्मप्रतिरूपकः ॥ ८ ॥śaktaḥ parajane dātā svajane duḥkhajīvini |
madhvāpāto viṣāsvādaḥ sa dharmapratirūpakaḥ || 8 ||If a wealthy man gives to other people, while his own people are living in distress,—such counterfeit virtue would be like swallowing poison, which is sweet in the beginning.—(8)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘His own people’—Servants, councillors, mother, son, wife and so forth;—while these ‘are living in distress,’—if the man ‘gives to other people’—for the purpose of acquiring fame,—this form would be like ‘swallowing poison,’—‘which is sweet in the beginning.’ The swallowing of poison, though apparently sweet in the beginning, leads to disastrous results, in the shape of death; exactly like that is the giving of gifts just described.
This same idea is otherwise expressed by calling the act ‘counterfeit virtue.’ It has the semblance of virtue and is not real virtue; just as the shell is like silver, not silver itself.—(8)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 283);—and in Hemādri (Dāna p. 40).
[note: this either belongs to verse 8 or 9]