Verse 8.201

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

विक्रयाद् यो धनं किं चिद् गृह्णीयात् कुलसंनिधौ ।
क्रयेण स विशुद्धं हि न्यायतो लभते धनम् ॥ २०१ ॥

vikrayād yo dhanaṃ kiṃ cid gṛhṇīyāt kulasaṃnidhau |
krayeṇa sa viśuddhaṃ hi nyāyato labhate dhanam || 201 ||

If a man obtains a property from the market, in the presence of witnesses, he acquires that property with a clear title obtained by legal purchase.—(201)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

The present verse shows by what sort of purchase real ownership is produced.

‘Vikraya,’ ‘market,’ is the place where people sell their goods. If one obtains from the market, some property,—goods put up for sale, in the shape of cattle and the rest,—or the price is paid for it,—‘he acquires it’— by ‘legal purchase,’ by paying the proper price,—‘in the presence of witnesses’—in the shape of intermediaries and brokers; and thus ‘he acquires it,’ and does not forfeit it. If the thing has been purchased from one who is not the rightful owner of it, then the property is restored to the rightful owner, and the bonafide purchaser obtains the price he had paid from the person who had sold it to him. In the event of his purchase being not bonafide, he is punished and also forfeits the property. This is what is thus asserted—‘The purchaser proves his bonafides by producing the seller, the rightful owner receives the property, and the king receives the fine paid by the seller, the purchaser receives back the price he had paid from the purchaser’ (Yajñavalkya, 2.170).

This same idea is set forth in the present verse.—(201)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 103), which adds the following notes:—‘Vikrayāt,’ from the market-place;—‘Kulasannidhau,’ in the presence of trustworthy traders and brokers;—‘Nyāyataḥ,’ qualifies ‘krayeṇa’;—‘viśuddhaḥ’ (which is its reading for ‘viśuddham,’) faultless;—‘labhate dhanam’, i.e., from the seller;—and in Kṛtyakalpataru (85b), which has the following notes:—‘Vikrayāt,’ ‘from the ‘market place,’ the word being explained as ‘vikrīyate asmin iti vikrayaḥ,’—‘kulasannidhau,’ in the presence of a number of business-men,—‘nyāyataḥ’ is to be construed with ‘krayeṇa,’ and means a bona fide purchase, on payment of the proper price.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Bṛhaspati (13.7, 8, 10).—‘When a purchase has been made before an assembly of merchants, the king’s officers also being aware of it,—but from a vendor whose habitation is unknown, or when the purchaser is dead,—the owner may recover his own property by paying half the price tendered; the custom in that case being that one half of the value is lost to each of the two parties. When a man purchases a commodity at a fair price, and the purchase has been announced to the King, there is no wrong about it.’

Bṛhaspati (12.3, 4).—‘When the vendor has been produced and has been cast in the suit, the judge shall cause him to pay the price to the buyer, a fine to the King, and to restore the property to the owner. When the former owner comes forward and makes good his claim to the article purchased, the vendor shall be produced by the purchaser; by doing so, the purchaser may clear himself.’

Nārada (7.2-5)—‘No blame attaches to a sale effected in public; but a clandestine sale is viewed in the same light as theft, according to law. The purchaser must not make a secret of the way in which he came by a chattel purchased by him. He becomes free from blame if he can point out the way in which the chattel was acquired by him. In any other case he is equally guilty with the vendor, and shall suffer the punishment of a thief. The vendor shall restore the property to the rightful owner, and shall pay to the buyer the price for which it was sold to him; besides that, he shall pay a fine to the King.’