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...
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Verse 9.9
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
यादृशं भजते हि स्त्री सुतं सूते तथाविधम् ।
तस्मात् प्रजाविशुद्ध्यर्थं स्त्रियं रक्षेत् प्रयत्नतः ॥ ९ ॥yādṛśaṃ bhajate hi strī sutaṃ sūte tathāvidham |
tasmāt prajāviśuddhyarthaṃ striyaṃ rakṣet prayatnataḥ || 9 ||As the man to whom the woman clings, so the offspring that she brings forth; hence for the sake of the purity of the offspring one should carefully guard the woman.—(9).
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The present text proceeds to explain what has been said in verse 7.
One should not entertain the idea that what is meant is—either (1) that ‘the woman brings forth a child of the same caste as that of the other man to whom she clings’, or (2) that ‘the child born resembles that man in his qualities’; because the child born of a Śūdra is a caṇḍāla’ and so forth. Even in the case of the parties belonging to the same caste, the caste of the child is not the same as that of the father; since it has been declared that ‘the child should be born of a woman of untouched womb’. If again, the child were to resemble the father in qualities, it would mean that the text permits the woman whose husband is poor and of bad character to have recourse to another man possessed of better qualities.
If, on the other hand, the text is taken as purely declamatory, the sense of the assertion, ‘as the man so the child’ comes to be that ‘the child born is not endowed with the qualities of the family’.—(9).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 414);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra, 159a).
Comparative notes by various authors
Yājñavalkya (1.81).—‘It has been ordained that women should be protected.’
Śaṅkha-Likhita (Vivādaratnākara, p. 414).—‘The woman brings forth a son partaking of the character of that man on whom she has her affections fixed during her period.’
Other Dharmashastra Concepts:
Discover the significance of concepts within the article: ‘Verse 9.9’. Further sources in the context of Dharmashastra might help you critically compare this page with similair documents:
Yajnavalkya, Viramitrodaya, Same caste, Bad character.
Concepts being referred within the main category of Hinduism context and sources.
English translation, Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration, Other man, Protecting women, Explanatory note.