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:

मन्यन्ते वै पापकृतो न कश्चित् पश्यतीति नः ।
तांस्तु देवाः प्रपश्यन्ति स्वस्यैवान्तरपूरुषः ॥ ८५ ॥

manyante vai pāpakṛto na kaścit paśyatīti naḥ |
tāṃstu devāḥ prapaśyanti svasyaivāntarapūruṣaḥ || 85 ||

‘The sinners indeed think that “no one sees us”; but the gods see them, as also their own inner personality.’—(85)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The particle ‘na’ is misplaced.

Sinners’—perjurors and others—‘think’—feel—that ‘no one sees us’;—the particle ‘iti’ shows that the whole clause is the object (of the verb ‘think’);—the construction of the clause being ‘na naḥ kaścit paśyati.’

The gods’—named in the next verse—‘see them’; as also their own sinner soul. This is what is meant by the assertion that ‘the soul is the soul’s witness.’

“But who is it that commits the sin? And who apart from him is the one that sees? In fact it is the soul itself that does all that is good or evil, and certainly there is no other ‘inner personality’ that sees it.”

True; but the same soul has been represented as a ‘god,’ and as such spoken of as the doer of the act (of seeing); and this has been done for the purpose of preventing the man from telling a lie, the sense of the exhortation thus is—

‘You know that the real nature of your true personality is divine, which is within the body, while your exterior body is not your soul;—hence, for the nourishing of this latter, do not commit a single act;—hence too do not disregard or despise your soul, the best witness of man. Other witnesses give evidence only in this world, while the soul hears evidence even after death; hence one should be afraid of such a witness.’

The liar may be led to think—‘when I am born again with another soul, what will my present soul, which is the seer, be able to do to me?’ But this is not so; since ‘the soul is the soul’s refuge’ (verse 84). Apart from his soul, there is no refuge for man; and there are not two souls for a single man.

Others hold that the difference is that the soul spoken of as the ‘witness’ is the supreme one, while the souls born in the persons of the world are those that are under his sway.—(85)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Smṛticandrikā (Vyavahāra, p. 199);—in Kṛtyakalpataru (33b),—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra, p. 53b).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.79-86)

See Comparative notes for Verse 8.79.

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