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...

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

स ताननुपरिक्रामेत् सर्वानेव सदा स्वयम् ।
तेषां वृत्तं परिणयेत् सम्यग् राष्ट्रेषु तत्चरैः ॥ १२२ ॥

sa tānanuparikrāmet sarvāneva sadā svayam |
teṣāṃ vṛttaṃ pariṇayet samyag rāṣṭreṣu tatcaraiḥ || 122 ||

This officer shall always personally supervise in turn all those officers, and thoroughly acquaint himself, through the King’s spies, with their behaviour in their respective jurisdictions.—(122)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The officer delegated to the town shall ‘supervise’ those lords of villages, and in case of need, shall help them with his forces.

He shall al so ‘thoroughly acquaint himself with’—find but all about—the behaviour of those officers;—through whom?—‘through the King’s spies’, disguised as a pilgrim etc.—(122)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 250), which adds the following notes:—‘Anuparikrāmāti.e., wherever the lawful people are being oppressed by unlawful people, he should strengthen the former with his own forces;—‘vṛttam’ means ‘behaviour’;—‘pariṇayet’ means ‘report’; ‘taccaraiḥ,’ ‘through the king’s agents.’

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Arthaśāstra (p. 52).—‘By means of tests he shall have tested his ministers and then appoint spies, who shall go forth disguised as kāpālika and the like.’

Śukranīti (1.751-752).—‘Every year the king should personally inspect the villages, towns, cities, and districts and provinces and see which people are happy and which oppressed by the officers, and investigate cases brought up before him by the people.’

Mahābhārata (12.87.11-12).—‘All their actions shall be watched by the king’s spy.’

Yājñavalkya (1.337).—(See under 120.)

Kāmandaka (12.25).—‘A person skilled in the interpretation of internal sentiments by conjecture and by external gestures, accurate of memory, polite and soft in speech, agile in movements, capable of bearing up with all sorts of privations and difficulties, ready-witted and expert in all things,—such a person is fit to become a spy.’

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