Verse 9.54

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

ओघवाताहृतं बीजं यस्य क्षेत्रे प्ररोहति ।
क्षेत्रिकस्यैव तद् बीजं न वप्ता लभते फलम् ॥ ५४ ॥

oghavātāhṛtaṃ bījaṃ yasya kṣetre prarohati |
kṣetrikasyaiva tad bījaṃ na vaptā labhate phalam || 54 ||

If seed, carried away by rain or wind, germinates in a soil,—that seed belongs to the owner of the soil, and the owner of the seed does not receive the produce.—(54)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

It has been declared (under 43) that when a man sows his seed in another man’s soil, his seed is lost. And on the basis people may have the following idea—“In the case cited, it is only right that the produce shall be confiscated, since a wrong act has been committed by the man, in that he has tried to obtain surreptitious possession of the land,—otherwise, why should he go about sowing his seed in another’s field? But in a case where the owner of the seed has sown it in his own field, but it has been carried into another field by water or wind, there is no wrong done by the man; in fact he loses his own seed by this transference.”

It is with a view to combat such a notion that we have the present verse declaring that when ‘seed, carried away by rain or wind’—‘ogha’ stands for rain,—‘germinates in another man’s field’,—then, the produce belongs to the owner of the soil.

Thus is the special law established that ‘the owner of the seed does receive the produce’; i.e., ownership of the soil is the more important factor.—(54)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Smṛtitattva (II, p. 150);—in Vivādaratnākara (p. 579), which explains ‘ogha’ as ‘current of water’ and ‘āhṛtam’ as ‘earned,’ and adds that this also only serves to indicate the greater importance of the ‘field’;—and in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 521).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 9.48-56)

(See the texts under 31-44.)

See Comparative notes for Verse 9.48.