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 5.49
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
समुत्पत्तिं च मांसस्य वधबन्धौ च देहिनाम् ।
प्रसमीक्ष्य निवर्तेत सर्वमांसस्य भक्षणात् ॥ ४९ ॥samutpattiṃ ca māṃsasya vadhabandhau ca dehinām |
Having duly pondered over the origin of meat, and over the fettering and killing of living beings, one should abstain from the eating of all meat.—(49)
prasamīkṣya nivarteta sarvamāṃsasya bhakṣaṇāt || 49 ||
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The foetus grows in the womb, which is an unclean place: and it is produced from semen and ovule, both unclean things.
‘Fettering and killing’—involved in the obtaining of meat.
‘Having duly pondered over’—carefully considered with an alert mind;—‘all this,—one shall abstain from the eating of all meat’—i.e., also of that which is not forbidden; what to say of what is actually forbidden?
The present text is a commendatory exaggeration: it is not meant that meat should be always regarded as unclean; the sentence does not mean to lay down that all meat is actually unclean.—(49)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
(verses 5.48-49)
See Explanatory notes for Verse 5.48.