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 8.196
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
निक्षिप्तस्य धनस्यैवं प्रीत्योपनिहितस्य च ।
राजा विनिर्णयं कुर्यादक्षिण्वन्न्यासधारिणम् ?? ॥ १९६ ॥nikṣiptasya dhanasyaivaṃ prītyopanihitasya ca |
rājā vinirṇayaṃ kuryādakṣiṇvannyāsadhāriṇam ?? || 196 ||Thus shall the king come to a decision regarding property given as ‘deposit’ and that which is given as ‘friendly loan,’—without causing any injury to the keeper of the deposit.—(196)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This verse sums up the section.
‘What is given as friendly loan’—i.e., what is given, through friendship, for being used for some time.
The cases have to be decided in such a way as noṭ to cause injury to the keeper of the pledge or deposit. ‘Akṣiṇvan’—without causing injury to.
In the whole of this section on ‘deposits’ only two or three verses are mandatory in their character, all the rest is purely commendatory,—mentioning things already known, in a friendly spirit.—(196)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 95), which adds the following notes:—‘Akṣiṇvan,’ not harassing the person who is believed to have been the holder of the deposit;—and in Parāśaramādhava (Vyavahāra, p. 209), which explains ‘aprakṣiṇvan’ (which is its reading for ‘akṣiṇvan’), as ‘not chastising.’