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 11.257
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
महापातकसंयुक्तोऽनुगच्छेद् गाः समाहितः ।
अभ्यस्याब्दं पावमानीर्भैक्षाहारो विशुध्यति ॥ २५७ ॥mahāpātakasaṃyukto'nugacched gāḥ samāhitaḥ |
abhyasyābdaṃ pāvamānīrbhaikṣāhāro viśudhyati || 257 ||He who is polluted by a ‘heinous offence,’ should, with concentrated mind, attend upon cows; and by repeating the Pāvamānī verses and subsisting on alms for one year, he becomes pure.—(257)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Polluted by a heinous offence.’—It is understood that this also refers to the number of such offences enumerated above; and it is quite reasonable for several expiations for each of the lighter offences.
‘Pāvamānī verses.’—This stands for the entire ‘maṇḍala,’ beginning with the verse ‘svādiṣṭhayā madiṣṭhayā, etc.,’ (Ṛgveda, 9.1.1) and ending with ‘yatte rājañchṛtam haviḥ, etc.’ (9.114.4).
The ‘Anugamana of the cows’ does not mean merely following them, but attending on them; and the exact form of this is to be ascertained from the description of the expiation for ‘cow-killing.’—(257)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta p. 457);—in Madanapārijāta (p. 982), as referring to cases of intentional repeated acts;—and in Prāyaścittaviveka (p. 501).