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 5.145
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
बालया वा युवत्या वा वृद्धया वाऽपि योषिता ।
न स्वातन्त्र्येण कर्तव्यं किं चिद् कार्यं गृहेष्वपि ॥ १४५ ॥bālayā vā yuvatyā vā vṛddhayā vā'pi yoṣitā |
na svātantryeṇa kartavyaṃ kiṃ cid kāryaṃ gṛheṣvapi || 145 ||Whether she be a child, or a young woman, or an aged woman, she should not do any act by herself, even in the house.—(145).
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The sense of the teaching is that under no circumstances should there be independence for women. The mention of the various stages of her age, is meant only to indicate where she has to be dependent upon others, and no significance is meant to attach to it.—(145).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
(Verse 147 of others.)
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 427);—in Madanapārijāta (p. 192);—and in Varṣakriyākaumudī (p. 577).
Comparative notes by various authors
Gautama (18.1).—‘A wife is not independent with respect to the fulfilment of the sacred law.’
Baudhāyana (2.3.44).—‘Women do not possess independence.’
Vaśiṣṭha (5.1).—‘A woman is not independent; the males are her masters.’
Viṣṇu (25.12).—‘Not to act by herself in any matter (is the duty of the woman).’
(See texts below, under 9.2.)