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:

अनपेक्षितमर्यादं नास्तिकं विप्रलुम्पकम् ।
अरक्षितारमत्तारं नृपं विद्यादधोगतिम् ॥ ३०९ ॥

anapekṣitamaryādaṃ nāstikaṃ vipralumpakam |
arakṣitāramattāraṃ nṛpaṃ vidyādadhogatim || 309 ||

He who heeds not the bounds of morality, who is a disbeliever, who is extortionate, who does not afford protection, and is grabbing,—such a king one should regard as doomed to perdition.—(309)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Bounds of morality’—i.e., moral laws based upon scripture and the usage of cultured men; he by whom those are ‘not heeded’—i.e., who transgresses them.

Disbeliever’—who holds that ‘there is no higher world,—there is nothing in charity—nothing in sacrifices.’

The former—‘who heeds not the bounds of morality’—is one who acts against the law, through hate and other passions (and who does not hold wrong opinions), while the latter is one who deities the law, and adheres to principles contrary to it.

Extortionate’— he who extorts money from the people, by illegal fines and such other means.

Similar to him is ‘he who does not afford protection.’

Such a king one should regard as doomed to perdition,’—i.e., as going to sink into hell before long.

Another reading for’ the last quarter is ‘asatyañca nṛpam tyajet’;—which means that if a king says one thing and does another, and is thus, ‘untruthful,’— him ‘one should abandon,’—i.e., one should not live in the realms of such a king.—(309)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Vipralumpakam’—‘Deserter of the Brāhmaṇa’ (Nandana, whose reading is ‘vipralopakam’);—‘who takes property even from a Brāhmaṇa’ (Nārāyaṇa);—‘rapacious, i.e., who takes (grains &c) improperly’ (Medhātithi).

This verse is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Rājanīti, p. 255), which explains ‘vipralopakam’ (which is its reading for ‘vipralumpakam’) as ‘one who injures the livelihood of the Brāhmaṇas’,—and ‘attaram’, ‘one who enjoys.’

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.307-309)

See Comparative notes for Verse 8.308.

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