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 9.37
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
इयं भूमिर्हि भूतानां शाश्वती योनिरुच्यते ।
न च योनिगुणान् कांश्चिद् बीजं पुष्यति पुष्टिषु ॥ ३७ ॥iyaṃ bhūmirhi bhūtānāṃ śāśvatī yonirucyate |
na ca yoniguṇān kāṃścid bījaṃ puṣyati puṣṭiṣu || 37 ||“This earth is called the primeval womb of things; and yet, in its development, the seed does not develop any qualities of the womb.”—(37)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The foregoing verse has described the fact that the qualities of the seed are reproduced in the product; the present verse is going to show that the qualities of the soil are not so reproduced.
‘This earth is called the womb’—soil of production—‘of things’—i.e., herb, vegetables, thickets, creepers and other immovable things; and yet none of the qualities of the earth are found in these things, neither clay nor dust bring found in them.
‘The seed does not develop in its development’.—The term ‘seed’ here stands for the corn growing out of the sprouts, and not for the loots. The corn, left over after consumption, when sown, again becomes the seed; and this does not ‘develop’—reproduce;—the reproduction of qualities being a part of the ‘development,’ we have the present tense in ‘develops,’—acquires, obtains—‘the qualities of the womb’—in its constituent parts, if the verb ‘develops’ itself had stood for the reproduction that forms part of the development, then the term ‘in its development’ would be superfluous. Hence, according to the principle that verbal roots have several meanings, the verb ‘develops’ has to be taken as denoting something else. Or, the term ‘in its development’ may be taken as only serving the purpose of filling up the metre; and the superfluity thus explained somehow. Or the two terms, ‘in its development’ and ‘develops’, may be explained as standing respectively for the general and special forms; just as in the expression ‘svapoṣam puṣṭaḥ’, ‘nourished by his own nourishment.’—(87)
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 9.31-44)
See Comparative notes for Verse 9.31.