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:

प्रतिगृह्याप्रतिग्राह्यं भुक्त्वा चान्नं विगर्हितम् ।
जपंस्तरत्समन्दीयं पूयते मानवस्त्र्यहात् ॥ २५३ ॥

pratigṛhyāpratigrāhyaṃ bhuktvā cānnaṃ vigarhitam |
japaṃstaratsamandīyaṃ pūyate mānavastryahāt || 253 ||

If a man has accepted a gift that should not be accepted, or has eaten reprehensible food, he becomes pure in three days, by repeating the Taratsamandīya’ verses.—(253)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

What should not be accepted’—such as wine and similar things, or gold and such things from a sinner,—this latter also being ‘what should not be accepted.’

Reprehensible food’—food that has been polluted by any one of the four causes—its very nature, lapse of time, ownership and contact.

Taratsamandīya verses’—are four of the ‘Pāvamanī’ verses (Ṛgveda, 9.58.1-4).—(258)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Parāśaramādhava (Prāyaścitta p. 174);—in Mitākṣarā (3.307), which explains ‘apratigrāhyam’ as ‘poison, weapons, liquors, and things belonging to outcasts’;—in Madanapārijāta (p. 994);—and in Prāyaścittaviveka (p. 415).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gautama (24.2-3).—‘He who desires to accept, or has accepted a gift which ought not to he accepted, shall recite the four Ṛk verses beginning with “Tarat sa mandī,” standing in water. He who desires to eat forbidden food, shall scatter earth on it.’

Baudhāyana (4.2.4-5).—‘He who is about to accept gifts, or he who has accepted gifts, must repeatedly recite the four Ṛk-verses called Taratsamandīs. But in case one has eaten any kind of forbidden food, or food given by a person whose food should not be eaten, the means of removing the guilt is to sprinkle water over one’s head while reciting the Taratsamandī verses.’

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