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 7.196
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
भिन्द्याच्चैव तडागानि प्राकारपरिखास्तथा ।
समवस्कन्दयेच्चैनं रात्रौ वित्रासयेत् तथा ॥ १९६ ॥bhindyāccaiva taḍāgāni prākāraparikhāstathā |
samavaskandayeccainaṃ rātrau vitrāsayet tathā || 196 ||He shall destroy the tanks, as also walls and ditches; he shall assail the enemy and shall frighten him—during the night.—(196)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The ‘tank’ elands for all kinds of water-reservoirs. The tank is ‘destroyed’ by its source of supply being cut off by means of embankments. The wall is ‘destroyed’ by being breached by means of machines, or being undermined. the ‘ditch’ is ‘destroyed’ either by being filled up or by having an outlet made in its banks.
He shall assail the enemy, in the fort, at the breaches in the walls, which should be attacked by brave soldiers; ‘and he shall frighten him during the night’—by means of men bolding on their heads jars of flaming fire, and crying like the jackal. People seeing such portents would keep up during the night; and being ‘fatigued by the waking would be easily reducible.—(196).
During all this time—
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Ācāra, p. 402);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 403).