Verse 3.52

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

स्त्रीधनानि तु ये मोहादुपजीवन्ति बान्धवाः ।
नारीयानानि वस्त्रं वा ते पापा यान्त्यधोगतिम् ॥ ५२ ॥

strīdhanāni tu ye mohādupajīvanti bāndhavāḥ |
nārīyānāni vastraṃ vā te pāpā yāntyadhogatim || 52 ||

Those relations who, through folly, live upon the bride’s properties—even the bride’s conveyances and clothes—are sinners and fall into the lowest state.—(52)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This verse is supplementary to the foregoing verse.

‘Bride’s properties’—i.e., those properties that are received from the bridegroom for the sake of the bride; ‘the relations’—fathers and others—‘who, through folly, live upon’ them;—as described above (in verse 31)

‘The’ property here spoken, of is that in the form of gold and silver.

‘Bride’s conveyances’—such as the horse and the rest.

‘Clothes;’—even such paltry things as clothes and conveyances should not be lived upon,—what to say of more valuable properties?

The text proceeds to describe what befalls those who do live upon such properties,—they are ‘sinners—and by doing what is prohibited in the scriptures—‘they fall into the lowest state’—i.e., into hell.

Or, ‘bride’s properties’ may be taken in the sense, in which it is going to be described in Discourse 9 below. Those who, through folly, live upon those properties;—the ‘relations,’ in this case, would stand for the girl’s father and his kinsmen, as also the husband and his relations. Similarly, with ‘conveyances’ and ‘clothes the ‘clothes’ also those belonging to the bride; this connection being assumed on the basis of the proximity of the term ‘bride’ (in the compound term ‘bride’s conveyances’); just as in the case of the use of expression, ‘royal servant,’ if some one asks, ‘whose?,’—this is taken to mean ‘of what king?’—(52)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 851), which deduces from the word ‘lobhena,’ ‘through greed,’ the conclusion that if something is received without greed on the part of the father, it is not the ‘price,’ but only an honorific present to the bridegroom; and in support of this it quotes Manu 3.54;—in Vyāvahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 761);—and in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 232);—and by Jīmūtavāhana (Dāyabhāga, p. 151).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Āpastamba-Smṛti (9.27).—[Reproduces Manu’s words, only substituting ‘svarṇam yānāni’ for ‘nārīyānāni.’]