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 8.381
[Sanskrit text for this chapter is available]
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
न ब्राह्मणवधाद् भूयानधर्मो विद्यते भुवि ।
तस्मादस्य वधं राजा मनसाऽपि न चिन्तयेत् ॥ ३८१ ॥na brāhmaṇavadhād bhūyānadharmo vidyate bhuvi |
tasmādasya vadhaṃ rājā manasā'pi na cintayet || 381 ||There is no greater crime on earth than the slaying of a Brāhmaṇa; the king shall, therefore, not even think of his death in his mind.—(381)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This is a declamatory supplement to what has gone before; Than the slaying of the Brāhmaṇa, there is no ‘greater crime,’—sin leading to greater suffering.
The Ablative in ‘vadhāt’ is to be explained by supplying the term ‘aṅgaḥ.’
For this reason, the king should not even think of inflictin g either death or amputation on the Brāhmaṇa.—(381)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 632);—in Parāśaramādhava (Vyavahāra, p. 59);—in Āparārka (p. 681);—in Mitākṣarā (2.281);—and in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 115).
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 8.379-381)
See Comparative notes for Verse 8.379.