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...
Verse 4.126
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
पशुमण्डूकमार्जारश्वसर्पनकुलाखुभिः ।
अन्तरागमने विद्यादनध्यायमहर्निशम् ॥ १२६ ॥paśumaṇḍūkamārjāraśvasarpanakulākhubhiḥ |
antarāgamane vidyādanadhyāyamaharniśam || 126 ||When cattle, a frog, a cat, a dog, a snake, a mongoose or a rat come between,—one should regard the day and night as unfit for study.—(126)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Come between’—between the teacher and the pupil, or Among the several students themselves.
‘Aharnisham’—Day and night.
Gautama (1.59), however, has declared—‘Fasting and living outside for three days has been laid down;’ and the same holds good regarding reading in the cremation-ground.
What is laid down in the present text is to be regarded as an option to what has been declared by Gautama—(l 26)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Purusārthocintāmaṇi (p.? 443);—in Smṛticandrikā (Saṃskāra, p. 158);—in Hemādri (Kāla, p. 767);—and in Gadādharapaddhati (Kāla, p. 196).
Comparative notes by various authors
Gautama (1.64).—‘In the case of the dog, the mongoose, the serpent, the frog and the cat, there should be fasting and living outside for three days.’
Viṣṇu (30.22).—‘Not when any five-nailed animal comes between.’
Yājñavalkya (1.147).—‘If there is intervention by cattle, or by a frog or a mongoose or a dog or a serpent or a cat or a rat,—it will be unfit for study for the day and night; as also when there is either fall or rise of Indra.’