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:

भैक्षेण वर्तयेन्नित्यं नैकान्नादी भवेद् व्रती ।
भैक्षेण व्रतिनो वृत्तिरुपवाससमा स्मृता ॥ १८८ ॥

bhaikṣeṇa vartayennityaṃ naikānnādī bhaved vratī |
bhaikṣeṇa vratino vṛttirupavāsasamā smṛtā || 188 ||

The avowed student should subsist on alms; he should not (habitually) eat the food given by one person. for the student, subsisting on alms has been declared to be equal to fasting.—(188)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Objection.—“It has already been laid down that he should go about begging alms every day (183).”

What is there said would show that the begging of Alms is meant to serve the visible purpose (of sustaining the body); specially as it has been subsequently laid down that ‘having offered it to the Teacher, he should eat it’; and this ‘eating’ cannot be sanctificatory of the alms; which alone could prevent us from taking it as serving the purely visible purpose of sustaining the body.

Some people have explained that the re-iteration of the ‘daily begging of alms’ is made for the purpose of adding the further direction that ‘he should not eat the food given by one person.’

But this is not right. Since the eating of the food given by one person is precluded by the term ‘alms’ itself. ‘Alms’ stands for an aggregate of what is obtained by begging; whence then could there be any possibility of eating the food given by one person?

The conclusion on this point is that the whole rule has been re-iterated here with a view to adding (in the next verse) that such eating of the food given by one person is permissible at Śrāddhas.

He should subsist on alms’;—he should nourish his body—sustain his life—by means of food obtained by begging; and he should not eat food received from a single person.

The verse should not be taken to mean that “he should not eat what belongs to a single person,—he should eat what belongs to several owners; e.g., what belongs to several undivided brothers.” For the word in the text means simply ‘one who eats one food—or one person’s food.’

The term ‘Vrati’ here stands for the Religious Student; and as the fact of the rule pertaining to him is clear from the context, the addition of the word can be taken only as filing up the metre.

Next follows the commendatory statement:—‘The subsisting—sustaining of the body—of the student on alms only has been declared to be equal to fasting.’—(188)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

The first half of the verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 454) in support of the view that the Student should not accept food from one and the same house day after day; and adds that this is meant to apply to normal times; in abnormal times it is not meant to be strictly adhered to; this on the strength of Yājñavalkya’s declaration (1. 32.)

The same work quotes the second half of the verse on p. 485, as declaring the reward accruing to the Student from strictly following the rules of alms-begging.

The whole verse is quoted in Vidhānapārijāta (p. 498) as prohibiting the habit of seeking for food from one and the same person regularly;—in Saṃskāramayūkha (p. 61);—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 111), which says that this refers to normal times, not to abnormal times of distress.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 2.188-189)

Yājñavalkya (1.32).—‘The student firm in his vow should not, except in times of distress, habitually eat food given by a single person; at a Śrāddha the Brāhmana may eat when he likes, without injuring his vow.’

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