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 7.195
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
उपरुध्यारिमासीत राष्ट्रं चास्योपपीडयेत् ।
दूषयेच्चास्य सततं यवसान्नोदकैन्धनम् ॥ १९५ ॥uparudhyārimāsīta rāṣṭraṃ cāsyopapīḍayet |
dūṣayeccāsya satataṃ yavasānnodakaindhanam || 195 ||After having besieged the foe, he shall halt, and proceed to harass his kingdom and continually vitiate his supply of fodder, food, water and fuel.—(195)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The siege has to be laid in such a manner that no one is allowed to enter nor any one allowed to get out
‘Kingdom’—i.e. territories outside the fortress occupied by the enemy.—This shall be ‘harassed’;—by kidnapping the inhabitants and persecuting them in various ways.
The ‘vitiating’ of fodder etc. consists in spoiling them by mixing undesirable things with them.—(195).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (on 1.342), in support of the view that before a country has been entirely subjected, the conqueror should do nothing for the sake of the people of that country;—in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 402);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 403).