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 9.45
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
एतावानेव पुरुषो यत्जायाऽत्मा प्रजैति ह ।
विप्राः प्राहुस्तथा चैतद् यो भर्ता सा स्मृताङ्गना ॥ ४५ ॥etāvāneva puruṣo yatjāyā'tmā prajaiti ha |
viprāḥ prāhustathā caitad yo bhartā sā smṛtāṅganā || 45 ||The man is a man only in so far as he consists of himself, his wife and his progeny. thus it is that the Brāhmaṇas have declared that ‘the husband is declared to be the same as the wife.’—(45)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
It is only right that the child belongs to the man whose wife the mother is; because the husband and wife are one; and the child also is the man himself; how then can the self of one man belong to another?
Such is the usage of the world, and the learned Brāhmaṇas also have made the same assertion.—(45)
Comparative notes by various authors
Āpastamba (2.14.16).—‘There is no division between husband and wife;—for from the time of marriage, they are united in religious ceremonies;—likewise also as regards the rewards for acts by which spiritual merit is acquired;—and with respect to the acquisition of property.’