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 11.142 [Expiation for cutting Trees and other Offences]

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

फलदानां तु वृक्षाणां छेदने जप्यमृच्शतम् ।
गुल्मवल्लीलतानां च पुष्पितानां च वीरुधाम् ॥ १४२ ॥

phaladānāṃ tu vṛkṣāṇāṃ chedane japyamṛcśatam |
gulmavallīlatānāṃ ca puṣpitānāṃ ca vīrudhām || 142 ||

When one cuts fruit-bearing trees, shrubs, creepers, branches of trees or flowering plants, he should recite one hundred Ṛk verses.—(142)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Fruit-bearing trees’—such as the Mango, the Kaṇṭakī and the like.

The reciting of one hundred Ṛk verses is meant for twice-born men.

“What then is to be the expiation for a Śūdra?”

Some people hold that for them the expiation shall be the same as for the ‘minor offence’ of ‘cutting green trees for fuel.’ This, however, cannot be right, as that would be too heavy.

“If that is too heavy, why should it have been prescribed in connection with minor offences?”

The expiation laid down there was for repeated acts.

For these reasons, for the Śūdra cutting fruit-bearing trees, etc., the expiation shall be fasting for two or three days.

Shrubs,’ etc.—have been already explained.

Latā’—stands here for branches of trees.—(142)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

Ṛkṣatam (Ṛcśatam?).’—‘One hundred verses, the Gāyatrī and the like’ (Kullūka);—‘the Gāyatrī itself repeated a hundred times’ (Nārāyaṇa).

This verse is quoted in Mitākṣarā (3.276);—in Parā sha ramādhava (Prāyaścitta, p. 434), which notes that this refers to the cutting of trees etc., other than that for sacrificial purposes;—in Aparārka (p. 1134), which notes that ‘puṣpitānām’ goes with ‘vīrudhām’;—in Madanapārijāta (p. 920), which notes that there is nothing wrong in cutting the trees etc., for the purposes of the five great sacrifices and other religious purpose;—and in Prāyaścittaviveka (p. 243), which says that this refers to the cutting of trees with very few fruits.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Viṣṇu (50.48).—‘For cutting trees yielding fruit, shrubs, creeping or climbing plants, or plants yielding blossoms, he should recite the Vedic mantra a hundred times.’

Yājñavalkya (3.276).—‘For cutting trees, shrubs and creepers, one should recite a hundred Ṛk verses.’

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