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:

आचार्यं च प्रवक्तारं पितरं मातरं गुरुम् ।
न हिंस्याद् ब्राह्मणान् गाश्च सर्वांश्चैव तपस्विनः ॥ १६२ ॥

ācāryaṃ ca pravaktāraṃ pitaraṃ mātaraṃ gurum |
na hiṃsyād brāhmaṇān gāśca sarvāṃścaiva tapasvinaḥ || 162 ||

He shall not injure his Preceptor, or Teacher or Father, or mother, or another elder, or Brāhmaṇas, or Cows, or any persons performing austerities.—(162)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Preceptor’—who initiated him.

Teacher’—who taught him, and explained to him (the Veda).

Elder’—other than the aforesaid two; i.e., the paternal uncle, the maternal uncle, and so forth.

Any persons performinq austerities.’—The term ‘any’ has been added with a view to include those sinners also who may be engaged in the performance of Expiatory Rites.

In various places, the injuring of all living beings has been forbidden: and some people think that the repetition of the same in the present text is meant to forbid the injuring of even such Preceptors and Teachers, etc., as may be great sinners and dangerous enemies; and that what is stated in 8.350 regarding the propriety of striking ‘the teacher, or the boy, or the old man,’ etc., is only a counter-exception to what is forbidden in the present verse.

Our Teacher, however, says as follows:—The present verse is not a ‘prohibition,’ it is of the nature of ‘preclusion;’ and it is meant to prescribe the determination (not to injure the persons, just like the text—‘he shall not look at the rising sun,’ etc. Hence, the mere act of injury having already gone before, the present may be taken as forbidding even the idea of injuring the persons mentioned.

Or, the term ‘hiṃsā,’ ‘injury,’ may be taken to mean ‘the saying of disagreeable words;’ in view of such expressions as ‘he struck her with words.’

Or, the root ‘hanti’ (in ‘hiṃsa’) may he taken as used in the sense of acting against.—(162).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Hiṃsyāt’—‘Strike, or talk in an offensive manner, or act against’ (Medhātithi);—‘act against’ (Kullūka);—‘injure’ (Govindarāja).

Tapasvinaḥ’—‘All persons engaged in austerities, including those engaged in expiatory penances’ (Medhātithi and Govindarāja);—‘ascetics’ (Nandana and Rāghavānanda).

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 223);—in Mitākṣarā (on 2.21), in the sense that no injury should be inflicted upon the persons mentioned, even though they attack one with murderous intent;—in Vyāvahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 118);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyāvahāra, p. 7a), which explains the meaning to be that the persons mentioned should not be killed, even if they turn out to be ‘ātatāyin’, ‘dangerous criminal’.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Āpastamba (1.1.15).—‘He shall never hear ill-will towards him (the Teacher).’

Gautama (2.15).—‘There should never be any misbehaviour towards parents.’

Mahābhārata (Śānti, 132.9).—‘He shall never injure the Brāhmaṇas.’

Viṣṇu (30.43.47).—‘He shall never hear ill-will towards the person from whom he acquires any knowledge, temporal or scriptural or spiritual...... one who fills the ears with truth...... him one shall regard as Father and as Mother, and shall never bear ill-will towards him.’

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