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:

पाषण्डिनो विकर्मस्थान् बैडालव्रतिकान् शठान् ।
हैतुकान् बकवृत्तींश्च वाङ्मात्रेणापि नार्चयेत् ॥ ३० ॥

pāṣaṇḍino vikarmasthān baiḍālavratikān śaṭhān |
haitukān bakavṛttīṃśca vāṅmātreṇāpi nārcayet || 30 ||

He shall not honour, even with speech, impostors, those who follow improper occupations, those who are cat-like in their behaviour, hypocrites, logicians, and those who behave like herons.—(30)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

In view of the implied meaning of the terms ‘shall dwell,’ people have taken this verse to mean that one shall.....


NOTE: Pages 336 and 337 are missing from the book. Please email me if you have a copy of the text.

 

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Pāṣaṇḍinaḥ’—‘Ascetics who wander about with external marks, such as nakedness, red-dresses, and so forth’ (Medhātithi, who does not explain the term as ‘non-brahmanical ascetics,’ as asserted by Buhler,—and also Govindarāja);—‘Śākyas, Bhikṣus, Kṣapaṇakas and other ascetics outside the Vedic pale’ (Kullūka and Nārāyaṇa);—‘those who do not believe in the Vedas’ (Rāghavānanda). The ‘vāhyaliṅgin’ does not mean, as Hopkins says, ‘those who bear the token of outcastes’; what is really meant is the person who, without possessing any real asceticism of the heart, makes a show of it, by wearing external marks.

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 170), which explains ‘vikarmasthān’ as ‘those addicted to such acts as are forbidden—in Mitākṣarā (on l. 130), which explains ‘haituka’ as ‘one who, by argumentation, raises doubts about everything’, — ‘pāṣaṇḍinaḥ’ as ‘those-who have recourse to such life-conditions as are opposed to the dictates of the Vedas—and in Smṛtisāroddhāra (p. 319).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Yājñavalkya (1.130).—‘One should always exclude the hypocrite, the logician, the impostor and those who behave like the heron.’

Viṣṇudharmottara (Aparārka, p. 171).—‘The man who transgresses all laws laid down in the Śruti and the Smṛti, relating to the division of castes and life-stages, and acts as he likes, relying upon false reasonings, addicted to evil deeds, deluded with overweening opinion of his own reasoning powers, is the Pāṣaṇḍin, wicked, fit for hell, the lowest of men. With such men and with the Vaiḍālavratas one shall never have any intercourse.’

Viṣṇupurāṇa (Do.).—[Same as Manu.]

Like what you read? Consider supporting this website: