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:

एतद् विधानं विज्ञेयं विभागस्यैकयोनिषु ।
बह्वीषु चैकजातानां नानास्त्रीषु निबोधत ॥ १४८ ॥

etad vidhānaṃ vijñeyaṃ vibhāgasyaikayoniṣu |
bahvīṣu caikajātānāṃ nānāstrīṣu nibodhata || 148 ||

This rule should be understood as applying to partition among sons born of wives of the same caste; listen to that applying to that among sons born to one man of several and diverse wives.—(148)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Sons born of the wives of the same caste.’— Sons born of mothers of the same caste as the father are entitled to inherit the whole property.

Born of diverse wives’;—i.e., of wives belonging to diverse castes.

This is what is now going to be expounded.

Severed’— this is a mere reiteration.

Others however attach special significance to this epithet (‘several’) also; the sense being that in the case of partition among sons born of several wives belonging to diverse castes, the rule is as going to be set forth (in 153),—viz., ‘The Brāhmaṇa son shall take four shares etc., etc.’ As for a single wife of a different caste,—no man ever has recourse to any such; hence she does not count in the present connection.—(148)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 527), which adds that ‘ekayoniṣu’ means ‘those belonging to the same caste’, ‘ekajātānām’, ‘begotten by one man’,—‘bahvīṣu’, ‘on wives belonging to diverse castes’;—and notes that ‘ekajātānām’ is to be construed with ‘bahvīṣu’ also.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 9.145-148)

See Comparative notes for Verse 9.145.

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