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:

कामतो रेतसः सेकं व्रतस्थस्य द्विजन्मनः ।
अतिक्रमं व्रतस्याहुर्धर्मज्ञा ब्रह्मवादिनः ॥ १२० ॥

kāmato retasaḥ sekaṃ vratasthasya dvijanmanaḥ |
atikramaṃ vratasyāhurdharmajñā brahmavādinaḥ || 120 ||

Persons learned in the Veda and knowing the law declare that for the twice-born person keeping up his vows, the intentional emission of semen means a ‘transgression of the vow.’—(120)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

This verse supplies the explanation of the meaning of the term ‘avakīṛṇīn’ ‘immoral religious student’;—from which it is clear that the term ‘vrata’ here stands for something other than the penances mentioned in the present context

Keeping up his vows.’—On the strength of other Smṛti texts, this should be understood to mean ‘one who is in the state of the Religious Student’; as it is for such a one that emission of semen, even without sexual intercourse, has been specially forbidden.

The rule here laid down applies to the case, of intentional emission of semen.—(120)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 1140), which explains that this ‘emission of the seed’ is meant to be ‘in a woman’;—and in Madanapārijāta (p. 909.)

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 11.118-123)

See Comparative notes for Verse 11.118.

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