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 4.148
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
वेदाभ्यासेन सततं शौचेन तपसैव च ।
अद्रोहेण च भूतानां जातिं स्मरति पौर्विकीम् ॥ १४८ ॥vedābhyāsena satataṃ śaucena tapasaiva ca |
adroheṇa ca bhūtānāṃ jātiṃ smarati paurvikīm || 148 ||By the constant recitation of the Veda, by purification, by austerity, and by doing no harm to living beings, he remembers his previous birth.—(148)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Adroha’—doing no harm.
‘Living beings’—moveable as well as immoveable.
The four acts mentioned bring about their result in the form of the remembrance of previous births; and they are to be performed throughout one’s life.
‘Jāti’—another birth.
‘Paurvikī’—foregoing, previous.—(148).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 229), where ‘jātī’ is explained as ‘birth’;—and in Vīramitrodaya (Āhnika, p. 320).