Verse 7.42

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

पृथुस्तु विनयाद् राज्यं प्राप्तवान् मनुरेव च ।
कुबेरश्च धनैश्वर्यं ब्राह्मण्यं चैव गाधिजः ॥ ४२ ॥

pṛthustu vinayād rājyaṃ prāptavān manureva ca |
kuberaśca dhanaiśvaryaṃ brāhmaṇyaṃ caiva gādhijaḥ || 42 ||

But through discipline Pṛthu and Manu obtained kingdoms, Kubera obtained the lordship of wealth and the son of Gādhi attained Brāhmaṇahood.—(42)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

‘The son of Gadhi (Gādhi?) attained Brāhmaṇahood.’—

Objection—“In connection with the subject of Kings and kingdoms, where was the occasion for citing an instance of the attaining of Brāhmaṇahood? It was necessary to cite cases of the obtaining of kingdoms only, as was done in the first half of the verse.”

Our answer is that as a matter of fact a higher caste is more difficult to attain than sovereignty over riches; because the higher caste carries with it all its privileges.

Objection—“But how can, vinaya, discipline, be the cause of that? ‘Discipline’ consists in such qualifications as—the proper employment of the six means of success, alertness, thrift, non-avariciousness, freedom from evil habits, and so forth; and not one of these can be the cause of bringing about Brāhmaṇahood. In fact Austerity has been declared to be the cause of that, in such texts as—‘Viśvāmitra practised austerities with the view that he may not remain the son of a non-sage’ and so forth.”

Our answer is as follows:—The ‘Naya’, ‘conduct’, here spoken of (as ‘Vinaya’, ‘discipline’), is not what has been described in the Science of Politics; it is what has been enjoined in the scriptures and is observed in ordinary practice; and in the scriptures it has been laid down that ‘by means of Austerity, the higher caste is attained during another life’; while in the case of Viśvāmitra, Brāhmaṇahood was attained during the same life in which he was a Kṣatriya, as has been described in the books.—(42)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

“Pṛthu (cf. 9.44) was the title of several gods as well as kings. The one meant is probably he whose happy reign is described in the 7th and 12th books of the Mahābhārata. Manu needs only an exclamation [Hopkins evidently forgets (1) that the person speaking is not Manu himself, and (2) that there have been several Manus]. ‘Kubera was god of wealth and Gādhi’s son was Viśvāmitra who was born a Kṣatriya.”—Hopkins.

Gharpure refers to the Mahābhārata, Śāntiparva (58-107) and Bhāgavata (4-13, 145).

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 120).