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 12.21
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
यदि तु प्रायशोऽधर्मं सेवते धर्ममल्पशः ।
तैर्भूतैः स परित्यक्तो यामीः प्राप्नोति यातनाः ॥ २१ ॥yadi tu prāyaśo'dharmaṃ sevate dharmamalpaśaḥ |
tairbhūtaiḥ sa parityakto yāmīḥ prāpnoti yātanāḥ || 21 ||If on the other hand he practises vice for the most part, and virtue only in a small degree,—then, becoming deserted by those substances, he suffers the torments inflicted by Yama.—(21)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
“It has been said under 10 that the body of misbehaved persons is made out of five constituents; how is it that here the man is said to be ‘deserted’ by the substances?”
Our answer is that the man has no material body,—and yet there can be no ‘torments’ for one devoid of a body; so that the bodies of men here referred to are of an entirely distinct kind; and when the man is described as ‘deserted by the substances,’ the substances meant are those of peculiar character, such as are productive of exceptionally soft and smooth and delicate bodies; and ‘deserted’ means that he has expiated for his sins by the pain suffered; and what he is deserted by are those bodies with which people become invested in Heaven.—(21)