Verse 7.9

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

एकमेव दहत्यग्निर्नरं दुरुपसर्पिणम् ।
कुलं दहति राजाऽग्निः सपशुद्रव्यसञ्चयम् ॥ ९ ॥

ekameva dahatyagnirnaraṃ durupasarpiṇam |
kulaṃ dahati rājā'gniḥ sapaśudravyasañcayam || 9 ||

Fire burns only one man who may happen to approach it carelessly; the fire of the King, on the other hand, consumes the entire family, along with its cattle and hoard of wealth.—(9)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The following verses are commendatory supplements to the foregoing Injunction. Though the context deals with the ‘Duties of Kings’, yet what is stated here applies to all men.

When a man touches fire with his hand, or goes too near the fire when it is burning fiercely,—he is said to be ‘approaching it carelessly’; and when he is thus careless, he becomes burnt. If, however, the King happens to be angry, he destroys the man along with his wife, children, relations and property. In fact; on account of the fault committed by the master of the house, he destroys all those relations and friends that may happen to be with the family at the time, along with all their goods and chattels.—(9)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 392);—in the same work (Vyavahāra, p. 6);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 18), which adds the following notes:—When a man carelessly approaches too near the fire, he himself alone is burnt, not his sons or other relations;—others have explained ‘durupasarpiṇam’ as ‘one who approaches the fire for the purpose of throwing himself into it, with a view to escape from misery’;—better still than both these explanations is the following one:—‘When a man, knowing himself to be guilty, proceeds, through bravado, to touch Fire in an ordeal, it is he alone that is burnt by the fire; but the king, becoming angry with him, destroys the man himself as well as his son, brother and other members of the family, along with his cattle and other possessions.’ It is thus alone that the two halves of the verse become correlated.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 7.3-13)

See Comparative notes for Verse 7.3.