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:

न ब्राह्मणो वेदयेत किञ्चिद् राजनि धर्मवित् ।
स्ववीर्येणैव तांशिष्यान् मानवानपकारिणः ॥ ३१ ॥

na brāhmaṇo vedayeta kiñcid rājani dharmavit |
svavīryeṇaiva tāṃśiṣyān mānavānapakāriṇaḥ || 31 ||

The Brāhmaṇa conversant with the Law shall not complain to the King; by his own power alone he shall punish the men that injure him.—(31)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

What the verse means is that when the occasion for it arises there is nothing wrong in the Brāhmaṇa having recourse to malevolent rites; it does not actually enjoin these rites; nor does it actually forbid the act of complaining to the King; all that is meant is that if there has been occasion for it, and the Brāhmaṇa does have recourse to the malevolent rites, the King shall not interfere with him. This is what is going to be declared later on: ‘The Brāhmaṇa is the creator, the punisher, etc, etc.—hence no one should say anything unpleasant to him’ (Verse 35),—where it is understood that the King shall not tell him anything.

Shall punish ’— Though there is this injunction, yet, as a rule, the Brāhmaṇa should complain to the King; because the sentence ‘he shall not complain to the King’ is not a prohibition, as is clear from the consideration of the concluding verse.

The occasions referred to here have been already enumerated—‘If one molests his wife’ and so forth. In the case of slight offences, he shall complain to the King—‘this man has done this to me.’

Conversant with the Law’—i.e., knowing the procedure of the malevolent rites.

By his own power’—by means of incantations and curses; that these are meant being clearly indicated by the next verse.—(31)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This and the following verses rescind the rules given above “(9.290).”—Buhler.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 11.31-35)

[See 9.290 above; and texts thereunder; also 9.313-321.]

Mahābhārata (12.165.18-2).—(Same as Manu.)

Vaśiṣṭha (26.16).—‘The Kṣatriya shall get over misfortunes that may have befallen him by the strength of his arms; the Vaiśya and the Śūdra by their wealth; and the Brāhmaṇa by muttered payer and oblations into fire.’

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