Verse 9.1 [Husband and Wife]

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

पुरुषस्य स्त्रियाश्चैव धर्मे वर्त्मनि तिष्ठतोः ।
संयोगे विप्रयोगे च धर्मान् वक्ष्यामि शाश्वतान् ॥ १ ॥

puruṣasya striyāścaiva dharme vartmani tiṣṭhatoḥ |
saṃyoge viprayoge ca dharmān vakṣyāmi śāśvatān || 1 ||

I shall now expound the eternal duties of the man and woman, who keep to the righteous path, during union and separation.—(1)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

In course of the enunciation of the ‘heads of dispute’, after ‘adultery’ comes ‘the determining of the duties of husband and wife’, it is this therefore that is now going to be set forth.

When the husband is very much harassed by his wife, or the wife is very much persecuted by her husband, the dispute is to be brought up before the king.

It has been laid down that the wife shall attend upon her husband who behaves in the right manner, who is not beset with hate and jealousy and who is well-disposed towards his wife; and the husband has no sort of ‘sovereignty’ over his wife; and the (attending) is to consist in shampooing his feet and rendering such service as behoves a servant

Though the words used in the text are ‘man’ and ‘woman—which only denote the human genus in its two sexes,—yet in the present context they are relative terms, connotative of the husband and wife; specially as in the next verse, the term ‘sva’ (svaiḥ) clearly indicates that the ‘man’ and ‘woman’ bear a distinct relationship to one another.

The present verse contains the author’s declaration as to what he is going to do in the coming discourse.

Of the husband and wife ,—‘during union’—while they are together,—and ‘during separation’,—when the husband has gone away from home.

‘The righteous path’— regarding toilet, the care of the body and so forth.

All this ‘I am going to expound’.

The epithet ‘eternal’ is only by way of praise.

‘Who keep to the righteous path—this is purely reiterative of the fact that it is the path laid down in the legal scriptures that is the most righteous.—(1).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 1034).