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 1.104 [Results accruing from the study of the Institutes]
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
इदं शास्त्रमधीयानो ब्राह्मणः शंसितव्रतः ।
मनोवाक्देहजैर्नित्यं कर्मदोषैर्न लिप्यते ॥ १०४ ॥idaṃ śāstramadhīyāno brāhmaṇaḥ śaṃsitavrataḥ |
manovākdehajairnityaṃ karmadoṣairna lipyate || 104 ||The Brāhmaṇa studying these institutes, and (thence) discharging all prescribed duties, is never defiled by sins of commission (or omission), proceeding from mind, speech or body.—(104)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
Having thus, indirectly through its co-relative, eulogised the Institutes as serving the purposes of the Brāhmaṇa, the Author now proceeds to eulogise them directly.
Knowing these Institutes, the Brāhmaṇa, comes to ‘discharge all prescribed duties,’—i.e. he observes all observances and practises full self-control; having learnt from the institutes that the omission of duties is sinful, he, fearing sin, fulfils all active and passive obligations (relating to observances and self-control),—doing everything in full conformity to the Institutes. Thus fulfilling all his duties, ‘he is not defiled’—affected—‘by the sins’ arising from the omission of duties prescribed and the commission of deeds prohibited.—(104)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in the Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 10) which reads ‘saṃśita’ for ‘śaṃsita’ and adds that the term here stands for ‘twice-born’ persons.