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 9.27
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
उत्पादनमपत्यस्य जातस्य परिपालनम् ।
प्रत्यहं लोकयात्रायाः प्रत्यक्षं स्त्री निबन्धनम् ॥ २७ ॥utpādanamapatyasya jātasya paripālanam |
pratyahaṃ lokayātrāyāḥ pratyakṣaṃ strī nibandhanam || 27 ||The begetting of the child, the nourishing of the born, and the ordinary life of the world,—of each of these things the woman is clearly the main-spring.—(27)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘The woman is the mainspring’— the prime cause of the begetting of children and the rest.
That this is so is quite ‘clear.’
‘Ordinary life of the world,’—such as offering food to guests that have arrived, welcoming and inviting others, and so forth.
‘Of each of these things’—the woman is the mainspring. Another reading for ‘pratyartham’ (‘of each of these’) is ‘pratyaham’ (daily)
The term ‘clearly’ implies importance, the sense being that the woman is the prime cause.—(27)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 191);—in Vivādaratnākara (p. 417), which notes that the construction is ‘pratyaham lokayātrāyāḥ nibandhanam strī’, and that both the bringing forth and the rearing of children are her function;—and in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Saṃs kāra, 66b).
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 9.26-27)
See Comparative notes for Verse 9.26.