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 12.88
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
सुखाभ्युदयिकं चैव नैःश्रेयसिकमेव च ।
प्रवृत्तं च निवृत्तं च द्विविधं कर्म वैदिकम् ॥ ८८ ॥sukhābhyudayikaṃ caiva naiḥśreyasikameva ca |
pravṛttaṃ ca nivṛttaṃ ca dvividhaṃ karma vaidikam || 88 ||The ‘Vedic Act’ is of two kinds—(a) the ‘active,’ which is conducive to happiness and prosperity, and (b) the ‘passive,’ which is conducive to the highest good.—(88)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
“The Vedic Act has all along been described as of the active kind; how is it that it is now said to be of two kinds?”
There is no force in this objection. Where it was said that the Vedic Act is of the active kind, what was meant was that the greater part of it is of that’ kind, as is found in the ease of the Agnihotra and other acts; but the same cannot be said of ‘renunciation’ and acts of that kind;—and yet both sets are equally ‘Vedic.’
‘Conducive to happiness and prosperity’—i.e., which serve these purposes; and—‘Conducive to the highest good’—that which accomplishes this purpose. These two terms are to be construed respectively with the foregoing terms (‘active’ and ‘passive’).—(88)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (3.58);—and in Aparārka, (p. 1033).