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...

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

ब्राह्मणं दशवर्षं तु शतवर्षं तु भूमिपम् ।
पितापुत्रौ विजानीयाद् ब्राह्मणस्तु तयोः पिता ॥ १३५ ॥

brāhmaṇaṃ daśavarṣaṃ tu śatavarṣaṃ tu bhūmipam |
pitāputrau vijānīyād brāhmaṇastu tayoḥ pitā || 135 ||

The Brāhmaṇa or ten years and the Kṣatriya or a hundred years should be known as father and son; and of the two this Brāhmaṇa is the father.—(135)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

One since whose birth ten years have elapsed is ‘of ten years.’ The time is the determining and the Brāhmaṇa the determined factor; but it is not possible to determine, by means of time, either his tallness or shortness or thinness, etc.; what can be determined by it is only a certain act of his; and this act can only be that of maintaining his life-breath, which subsists in him continuously since his birth.

The same explanation applies to the epithet ‘of a hundred years.’

They should be looked upon as ‘father and son.’

Of the two’—as compared with each other,—’ the Brāhmaṇa is the father.’

All that this means is that even when the Kṣatriya is very old and the Brāhmaṇa very young in years, the former should rise to meet and salute the latter.—(135)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 474), as showing that the Brāhmaṇa is ‘superior’ to all.

It quotes the same verse as contained in Bhaviṣyapurāṇa.—. It is quoted also in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Saṃskāra, p. 44b);—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 101) to the effect that as between a Brāhmaṇa and a Kṣatriya, the former is to be saluted by the latter, even though he be very much junior in age.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Āpastamba-Dharmasūtra (1.14.25)—(a paraphrase of Manu).

Viṣṇu-Smṛti (32.17)—(reproduces the exact words of Manu).

Bhaviṣya-purāṇa (Vīramitrodaya-Saṃskāra, p. 474)—(has the verse of Manu, to which it adds another verse to the effect that)—‘the Brāhmaṇa has thus been declared by the wise the Kṣatriya’s father, the Vaiśya’s grand-father and the Śūdra’s great-grand-father.’

Śātātapa (Vīramitrodaya-Saṃskāra, pp. 473-474).—‘Agni is the superior of the Twice-born men, the Brāhmaṇa is the superior of all castes.’

Śātātapa (Parāśaramāḍhava, p. 299).—‘The Kṣatriya and the rest should never be saluted by the Brāhmaṇa, even though they be endowed with knowledge and of good conduct and very learned.’

Mahābhārata (13.8.21).—‘The Kṣatriya, hundred years old and the Brāhmaṇa, ten years old, should he regarded as father and son; of the two, the Brāhmaṇa being the superior.’

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