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 9.190
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
संस्थितस्यानपत्यस्य सगोत्रात् पुत्रमाहरेत् ।
तत्र यद् रिक्थजातं स्यात् तत् तस्मिन् प्रतिपादयेत् ॥ १९० ॥saṃsthitasyānapatyasya sagotrāt putramāharet |
tatra yad rikthajātaṃ syāt tat tasmin pratipādayet || 190 ||In the case of a man dying childless, if an issue is raised from a member of the same family, all the property that there may be shall be delivered to that child.—(190)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
(verses 9.182-201)
(No Bhāṣya available.)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
According to Kullūka and Rāghavānanda, this verse refers to the case in which a duly authorised widow bears a son to her husband through a sagotra; and the former adds that this practice having been already sanctioned under verse 59, it is mentioned here again with a view to make it clear that the son may be obtained by the widow, not only “from the younger brother-in-law or a Sapiṇḍa”, but also from a remoter sagotra.—Nārāyaṇa holds the meaning of this verse to be that the son that the widow bears, even without authorisation, to a sagotra, shall inherit the property of the husband of that widow. He adds that some people apply this rule to Śūdra females only.
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 589), which adds the following notes:—The widow of a deceased person should bear a son from a ‘sagotra’—i.e. either from the younger brother-in-law or a sapiṇḍa—should make over the property owned by her dead husband to that son, and she should not take it herself; such is the opinion of the Pārijāta;—the author of the Prakāśa on the other hand holds the meaning to be that the king himself should make the widow bear a son through a sagotra, and hand over to him the father’s property;—the final result of both the explanations is the same.
It is quoted in Aparārka (p. 742), which explains ‘tasmai’ (which is its reading for ‘tasmin’) as ‘to that child’;—and in Vyavahāra-Bālambhaṭṭī (p. 758).
Comparative notes by various authors
[See texts under 59, 145 and 146.]