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 9.173
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
या गर्भिणी संस्क्रियते ज्ञाताऽज्ञाताऽपि वा सती ।
वोढुः स गर्भो भवति सहोढ इति चोच्यते ॥ १७३ ॥yā garbhiṇī saṃskriyate jñātā'jñātā'pi vā satī |
voḍhuḥ sa garbho bhavati sahoḍha iti cocyate || 173 ||If one marries, knowingly or unknowingly, a pregnant maiden, the child in her womb belongs to him who marries her, and is called ‘received along with the wife.’—(173)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
(verses 9.173-178)
[The Bhāṣya on these verses is not available in any of the manuscripts.]
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 567), which adds that the term ‘saṃskriyate’ stands for the rites of offerings etc. other than those performed with mantras prescribed in connection with marriage;—it quotes the opinion of others to the effect that the rites meant are those laid down in the Atharvan texts:
It is quoted in Vīramitrodaya (Vyavahāra 189b);—in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 38);—in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (pp. 547 and 557);—and in Nṛsiṃhaprasāda (Vyavahāra, p. 38a).
It is quoted in Aparārka (p. 738);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 742), which remarks that the ‘rites’ spoken of here are with a view to just qualify the son thus born to serve as the ‘son’ of his mother’s husband;—and it does not stand for the regular marriage-rites.
Comparative notes by various authors
Baudhāyana (2.3-25).—‘If one marries, knowingly or unknowingly, a pregnant bride, the child that is born of her is called the Sahoḍha, taken with the Bride.’
Vaśiṣṭha (17.26-27).—‘Among those sons who arc not inheritors, hut only kinsmen, the first is he who is Taken with the Bride;—the son of a damsel who is married pregnant is called Sahoḍha, Taken with the Bride.’
Viṣṇu (15.15-17).—‘The son Taken with the Bride is the seventh;—that son is so called who is the son of a woman married while pregnant;—and he belongs to the husband of the pregnant bride.’
Yājñavalkya (2.131).—‘The son Taken with the Bride is one who has been received (along with his mother) while still in the womb.’
Arthaśāstra (p. 41).—‘The son of a girl married while pregnant is called Sahoḍha.’