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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:

कुशीलवोऽवकीर्णी � वृषलीपतिरेव � �
पौनर्भवश्च काणश्च यस्य चौपपतिर्गृहे � १५� �

kuśīlavo'vakīrṇ� ca ṛṣīpatireva ca |
paunarbhavaśca kāṇaśca yasya caupapatirgṛhe || 155 ||

An actor, one who has broken the vows of continence, the husband of a Śū woman, the son of a re-married woman, one who has only one eye, and he in whose house lives the paramour.�(155)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (Գܲṣy):

Bards, dramatic performers, dancers and singers are called ‘actors.�

One who has broken the vows of continence’—necessary for the student.

The term �ṛṣī� stands for the śū woman; her �husband.� People think that this refers to a case where there is no other wife; the meaning being ‘he who is the husband of the Śū woman alone, he who has no wife of any twice-born caste.�

“Whence is this sense got at?�

In another connection, we find a recapitulation of reprehensible practices, where we read—‘these are men addicted to reprehensible practices� (167); the mere marrying of a Śū woman, which is sanctioned by all, is not ‘reprehensible;� but it has been sanctioned only for one who has already married a wife of the same caste as himself. Hence, what is excluded here is that husband of the Śū woman who has no wife of the same caste as himself.

The son of a re-married woman;’Ĕ�ܲԲū�� is the remarried woman; described under Discourse 9, in the verse ‘she who has been abandoned by her husband, etc.� (9.175).

Who has only one eye’—whose one eye is maimed.

He in whose house lives the paramour,’�i.e., the paramour of his lawfully wedded wife. Such a man is despised by reason of his tolerating such a thing. It is said below (8.317)—‘The abortionist transmits bis guilt to him who feeds him, and the misbehaved wife transmits hers to her husband.’�(155)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in ʲś󲹱 (Ācāra, p. 687), which (on p. 693) adds the following notes:—�śī� stands for ‘singers and others,’Ĕ�ṛṣī貹پ� is ‘the husband of a girl who attained puberty before marriage;’—that person also is to be excluded in whose house a paramour of his wife’s lives constantly;—in (Śrāddha, p. 481);—and in Ś󲹰첹ܻܳī (p. 40), which explains �śī�� as ‘dancer�.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 3.150-166)

See Comparative notes for Verse 3.150.

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