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:

अरक्षिता गृहे रुद्धाः पुरुषैराप्तकारिभिः ।
आत्मानमात्मना यास्तु रक्षेयुस्ताः सुरक्षिताः ॥ १२ ॥

arakṣitā gṛhe ruddhāḥ puruṣairāptakāribhiḥ |
ātmānamātmanā yāstu rakṣeyustāḥ surakṣitāḥ || 12 ||

Women confined in the house under trusted servants are not well guarded; really well guarded are those who guard themselves by themselves.—(12)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Trusted servants’—Those who would act in the right manner at the right moment; i.e., persons ever on the alert; and hence considered fit for being employed in the harem, as chamberlains.

Women who are ‘confined’—not allowed to go about freely—in the house under such men, are not really well-guarded; but those are ‘who guard themselves by themselves.’

And how are they to guard themselves?

Just when they are employed as above.

This verse is meant to be a praise of the method laid down in the preceding verse, and it does not exclude other methods.—(12)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 416), which explains ‘āptakāribhiḥ’ as ‘trustworthy and alert.’

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