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 9.213
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
यो ज्येष्ठो विनिकुर्वीत लोभाद् भ्रातॄन् यवीयसः ।
सोऽज्येष्ठः स्यादभागश्च नियन्तव्यश्च राजभिः ॥ २१३ ॥yo jyeṣṭho vinikurvīta lobhād bhrātṝn yavīyasaḥ |
so'jyeṣṭhaḥ syādabhāgaśca niyantavyaśca rājabhiḥ || 213 ||If an eldest brother, through avarice, defrauds the younger ones, he shall lose his ‘seniority’ and his share, and shall also be punished by the king.—(213)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
‘Defrauding’ consists in cheating them out of their share in the property, as also that of the honours etc., that may be conferred by the king.
‘Loses his seniority’;—i.e., is to be treated as an ordinary kinsmen (as laid down in 110). This does not preclude all that is due to him as the eldest brother.
He loses also his ‘share’—i.e., the ‘preferential share’ due to him as the eldest brother.
‘Punished.’—As the special form of punishment to be inflicted has not been specified, he shall be reprimanded or censured or fined, in accordance with the exact nature of his offence.—(213)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Mitākṣāra (2. 126) as having been understood by some people to mean that ‘misappropriation’ of the entire property is wrong only for the eldest brother, and not for the younger brothers. This view, it says, is wrong; the verse clearly implying that, just as it is wrong for the eldest brother who is in the place of father for the younger brother to misappropriate the property, so it is also for the younger brothers, who are as ‘sons’ to the eldest brother.
It is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Vyavahāra, p. 383), which takes it to mean that when even the eldest brother, who is independent, is held to commit a wrong if he does the mis-appropriation, it is all the more culpable in the case of the younger brothers, who are not independent.
It is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 478), which explains ‘vinikurvīta’ as ‘should defraud,’ and ‘ajyeṣṭhaḥ’ as ‘not to be respected as the eldest brother’;—and in Vyavahāramayūkha (p. 58), which remarks that the term ‘jyeṣṭhaḥ’ stands for all the heirs to a property, the meaning being that when the eldest also is held culpable, how much more so the younger brothers?
Comparative notes by various authors
Mahābhārata (13.105.7).—(Same as Manu.)