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:

शरीरजैः कर्मदोषैर्याति स्थावरतां नरः ।
वाचिकैः पक्षिमृगतां मानसैरन्त्यजातिताम् ॥ ९ ॥

śarīrajaiḥ karmadoṣairyāti sthāvaratāṃ naraḥ |
vācikaiḥ pakṣimṛgatāṃ mānasairantyajātitām || 9 ||

Through sinful acts due to the Body, man becomes inanimate; through those of Speech, a bird or a beast; and through those of Mind, he is born in the lowest caste.—(9)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

What the verse describes is what happens in a large number of cases; the sense being that in most cases whenever men are reborn in the species mentioned, it is due to causes herein specified. Bat it is not always so; as it is going to be asserted later on (55 et. seq.) that those who commit the ‘heinous offences’ are born among the lower animals and so forth.

Birds’ and ‘beasts’ stand here for all kinds of lower animals.

What the verse is really meant to indicate is that, among sins due to Mind, Speech and Body, the succeeding ones are graver than the preceding ones.—(9)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Madanapārijāta (p. 692);—in Smṛtitattva (p. 480);—in Mitākṣarā (3.68), in support of the view that mental acts lead to the soul being born in particular kinds of bodies;—and in Prāyaścittaviveka (p. 6).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Yājñavalkya (3.131).—‘Just as in the body of man, there are endless tendencies, so are its forms also, in the various species of animals.’

Yājñavalkya (3.134-135).—(See above, under 6 and 7.)

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