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:

गोषु ब्राह्मणसंस्थासु छुरिकायाश्च भेदने ।
पशूनां हरणे चैव सद्यः कार्योऽर्धपादिकः ॥ ३२५ ॥

goṣu brāhmaṇasaṃsthāsu churikāyāśca bhedane |
paśūnāṃ haraṇe caiva sadyaḥ kāryo'rdhapādikaḥ || 325 ||

For stealing cows belonging to a Brāhmaṇa, and for piercing them with the goad, and for stealing animals, the thief should be immediately made half-footed.—(325)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Belonging to Brāhmaṇas,’— kept by Brāhmaṇas, owned by Brāhmaṇas;—for stealing such cows;—the Locative ending in ‘goṣu’ has the sense of the Genitive.

Animals’—goats, sheep and so forth. No significance is meant to be attached to the plural number in the words here used.

Immediately,’—at the very moment; without hesitation.

Ardhapādikaḥ,’ ‘half-footed’;—‘ardhapāda’ means half of the foot; and he who has only half of his foot-left is called ‘half-footed’; and one becomes so only if half of his foot is cut off. Hence what the sentence means is ‘that half of the thief’s foot should he cut off.’

Kharikā,’ ‘goad,’ is that by which oxen are driven in chariots or fields.—‘Piercing,’—causing pain by driving with the goad. The term ‘piercing’ has been explained by the older writers as standing for driving; and certainly the man causes pain to the animal by driving it. Others hold that the punishment laid down is to be inflicted only when the driving it done with the goad.

Others explain the term ‘Kharikā’ as meaning the hind quarters of the animal. (And what would be punished, ac cording to this interpretation, would he the piercing of the hind quarters of cows.)

If however ‘Kharikā’ is taken as standing for the cow that has the evil habit of running away,—then the keeper or someone else who pierces such the cow, should be made ‘half-footed.’

Others interpret the Locative in ‘goṣu’ literally, and explain the words as referring to the theft of cows and other products of the milk of cows, by supplying additional words.

But this cannot he right. For so long as sense can be made out of the words as they stand, why should any additional words be supplied?—(325)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Kharikāyāśca bhedane’—Medhātithi is misrepresented by Buhler. Medhātithi’s reading is ‘khārikāyāḥ’ and the ‘kharikā’ he explains as ‘yayā gorakṣaiḥ kṣetrādau vāhyate balīvardaḥ’, ‘that whereby the ox is driven by the ox-keeper in the fields and other places’; so apparently the driving goad is meant. Buhler has relied upon the reading of Ms. 8, which reads the sentence as ‘sthurikā yo gorathakṣetrādiṣu vāhyate balīvardaḥ’; this reading involves the discrepancy of the feminine noun ‘sthurikā’ being taken as the ox; which discrepancy need not be accepted in the face of the better reading in the printed text (of Mandlik); ‘bhedane’ thus means ‘piercing’ (with the goad)—Kullūka and Rāghavānanda, reading ‘churikā and ‘sthurikā’ explain it as ‘the barren cow’ and ‘bhedane’ as piercing of the nose;—Nārāyaṇa explains it as the load of the ox, and ‘bhedane’ as ‘cutting open and stealing’;—Nandana explains the word as a particular spot on the back of the ox.

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 319), which adds the following notes:—‘Sphurikā’ (which is its reading for ‘kharikā’) is the barren cow,—‘bhedana’ is ‘the piercing of the nose for purposes of driving—‘paśūnām’, the animals meant here are all smaller animals except the sheep, the cat and the mongoose;—and in Vivādacintāmaṇi (p. 135), which says that ‘tūlikā’ means ‘the nostrils’, and bhedana’ means ‘boring.’

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 8.324-325)

See Comparative notes for Verse 8.324.

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