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 4.191
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
तस्मादविद्वान् बिभियाद् यस्मात् तस्मात् प्रतिग्रहात् ।
स्वल्पकेनाप्यविद्वान् हि पङ्के गौरिव सीदति ॥ १९१ ॥tasmādavidvān bibhiyād yasmāt tasmāt pratigrahāt |
svalpakenāpyavidvān hi paṅke gauriva sīdati || 191 ||For these reasons, the illiterate man should fight shy of accepting each and every gift. By receiving even a small gift, the illiterate person sinks, like the cow in a morass.—(191)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
For fear of hell, the ‘illiterate’—ignorant—‘person’ should fight shy of accepting a gift;’—i.e., for fear of being destroyed, he should not accept any gifts to say nothing of gold and other specified things.
By accepting even ‘a small gift,’ in the shape of things of little value as lead and the like, the illiterate man sinks in the same manner as the cow sinks in a morass.—(191).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Hemādri (Dāna, p. 60).
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 4.190-191)
See Comparative notes for Verse 4.190.