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 5.35
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
नियुक्तस्त� यथान्याय� यो मांस� नात्ति मानव� �
� प्रेत्� पशुतां याति सम्भवानेकविंशतिम� � ३५ �niyuktastu yathānyāya� yo māṃsa� nātti mānava� |
sa pretya paśutā� yāti ekaviṃśatim || 35 ||But when invited according to law, if a man does not e at meat, he becomes, after death, a beast, during twenty- one births.�(35)
Medhātithi’s commentary (Գܲṣy):
�Sambhava� stands for janma, birth.
Except when there is danger to life through hunger, if a man does not worship the Gods, and yet eats meat, he certainly incurs sin.�(35)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in 貹첹 (p. 251), which explains �Ծܰٲ�� as ‘invited, at a sacrifice to the gods or at a Śrāddha�;—in Ѿṣa (on 1.179) to the effect that one must eat meat when iṅvited to a Śrāddha;—in
ṇaⲹԻ (p. 294) as setting forth the sinfulness of not eating the meat duly offered;—in īٰǻ岹ⲹ (Āhnika, p. 530), which explains �� as ‘births�;—in ṛtٲٳٱ (p. 449);—in (Śrāddha, p. 577);—and in ʰⲹśٳٲ첹 (p. 279), which remarks that this refers to such meat as is not forbidden.
Comparative notes by various authors
Vaśiṣṭha (11.34).—‘An ascetic who, invited to dine at a sacrifice to Pitṛs or to gods, refuses meat, shall go to hell.�
Yama (貹첹, p. 251).—‘The man who, invited to a Śrāddha or to a sacrifice to the gods, refuses meat, shall go to hell, etc.�
Hārita and Śātātapa (īٰǻ岹ⲹ-Āhnika, p. 530).—‘If one, invited to a Śrāddha, does not eat meat, one goes to hell...�