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 11.240
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
कीटाश्चाहिपतङ्गाश्च पशवश्च वयांसि च ।
स्थावराणि च भूतानि दिवं यान्ति तपोबलात् ॥ २४० ॥kīṭāścāhipataṅgāśca paśavaśca vayāṃsi ca |
sthāvarāṇi ca bhūtāni divaṃ yānti tapobalāt || 240 ||Insects, snakes, moths, animals and birds, as also immovable beings go to heaven by the force of austerities.—(240)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This is a praise of Austerity.
By the force of austerity, beings go everywhere, reaching Heaven itself;—even such naturally incapable beings as Insects and the rest go to heaven by the form of austerity;—what of learned Brāhnmṇas?
What forms the basis of this assertion is the fact that the suffering that, these insects and other beings experience by the very nature of their existence is the ‘austerity’ in their case; and when they have thereby destroyed their sins (on account of which they were born as insects, etc.) they go forward to heaven to which they are entitled by their good deeds in the past—(240)
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 11.234-244)
See Comparative notes for Verse 11.234.