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:

यद् यद् ददाति विधिवत् सम्यक् श्रद्धासमन्वितः ।
तत् तत् पितॄणां भवति परत्रानन्तमक्षयम् ॥ २७५ ॥

yad yad dadāti vidhivat samyak śraddhāsamanvitaḥ |
tat tat pitṝṇāṃ bhavati paratrānantamakṣayam || 275 ||

Whatever one endowed with faith, offers, according to rule and in the right manner,—that becomes endless and inexhaustible for the Pitṛs in the other world.—(275)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Whatever.’—This term sanctions the offering of everything, not actually prohibited.

According to rule’ is a reiteration of what has been said by means of the term, ‘in the right manner.’

Endowed with faith’— This is what is actually prescribed in the present verse:—‘one should make the offering with due faith.’

What is given in this manner ‘becomes endless and inexhaustible for the Pitṛs in the other world.’ ‘Endless’ may be taken as denying all limitation of time;—‘Inexhaustible’ denies non-diminishing of quantity; the sense being ‘it lasts for all time and becomes large in quantity.’—(275)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Hemādri (Śrāddha, p. 1031):—and in Gadādharapaddhati (Kāla, p. 551).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Baudhāyana (2.62-65).—‘The gods desirous of purity do not accept the offerings of the faithless. The gods discussed the relative merits of the person who is pure but faithless and he who is not pure but full of faith, and came to the conclusion that both were equal; hut Prajāpati said to them: “They are not equal; there is great difference; as the Śrāddha offered by the faithless is damned; what is sanctified by faith is distinctly superior.” In this connection, they have the following saying—Want of faith is a great sin; faith is the highest austerity; therefore, what is offered without faith, the gods never accept.’

Mahābhārata (13.188.72, 79).—‘Those men who offer Śrāddhas with due faith save their forefathers from the most terrible hell; he who performs the Śrāddha with faith becomes freed from the debt owing to the Pitṛs.’

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