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:

एतदेव व्रतं कुर्युरुपपातकिनो द्विजाः ।
अवकीर्णिवर्ज्यं शुद्ध्यर्थं चान्द्रायणमथापि वा ॥ ११७ ॥

etadeva vrataṃ kuryurupapātakino dvijāḥ |
avakīrṇivarjyaṃ śuddhyarthaṃ cāndrāyaṇamathāpi vā || 117 ||

Twice-born men who have committed the minor offences, except the ‘immoral’ religious student, may, in order to purify themselves, perform this same penance, or the ‘Cāndrāyaṇa’ penance.—(117)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This same’:—this means that the expiatory rites laid down for cow-killing are applicable to all ‘minor offences.’ And the ‘Cāndrāyaṇa’ is another optional alternative.

Inasmuch as this latter rule has been laid down with special reference to the otherminor offences’ some people hold that the ‘Cāndrāyaṇa’ does not apply to the case of the cow-killer.

But according to this view, it will be necessary to find out why the cow-killer has been mentioned at all among ‘those who have committed minor offences.’—(117)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (3.265), as referring to cases of intentionally committed offences, and as standing for the ‘Three Years Penance’;—in Aparārkā (p. 1105), which also notes that this stands for the ‘Three Years Penance’;—in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 425) as referring to the ‘Three Years Penance’;—in Prāyaścīttaviveka (p. 394 and 463);—and in Smṛtisāroddhāra (p. 362), which says that ‘etat’ stands for the ‘Three monthly Penance’ prescribed for cow-killing.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Yājñavalkya (3.263).—‘From the Upapātakas (minor sins), one becomes absolved either in the aforesaid manner, or by the Cāndrāyaṇa, or by the Parāka, or by living upon milk for a month.’

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