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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:

डिम्भाहवहतानां � विद्युता पार्थिवे� � �
गोब्राह्मणस्� चेवार्थे यस्य चैच्छत� पार्थिवः � ९५ �

ḍimbhāhavahatānā� ca vidyutā pārthivena ca |
gobrāhmaṇasya cevārthe yasya caicchati pārthiva� || 95 ||

Also in the case of those killed in a riot or Battle or by lightning or by the king; and of those who have died for the sake of cows and 󳾲ṇa; as also for the person for whom the king desires it.�(94).

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (Գܲṣy):

Ḍi�, �Riot�, is fighting done by many people, without weapons; �Ā󲹱� is battle.

In the case of persons killed in these, there is immediate purification.

Lightning’—This has been already explained.

ٳ󾱱’—the lord of the Earth, who may belong to any of the four castes.

Also in the case of one who, even apart from battle, has been killed in water, or by tusked animals,—for the sake of cows and 󳾲ṇa.

Also for the person for whom the King desires it;’�i.e. the person who has been deputed by him to do a definite work.

Question:—“Why should this be so? In the case of the king himself, immediate purification has been ordained only in reference to his work of protecting the people; how then could the impurity of any and every person, without any restriction, cease merely by the king’s desire?�

[The answer to this is supplied by the next two verses].�(94).

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

(Verse 95 of others.)

پ󲹱’—a riot, or a fight without weapons (Medhātithi);—infants� (Nandana).

This verse is quoted in 貹첹 (p. 916), as laying down additional cases for ‘immediate purity�; it explains �徱󲹱,� as ‘weaponless fight�;—in Ҳ󲹰貹󲹳پ (Kāla, p. 317), which takes �󲹱󲹳ٲ,� ‘killed in battle� and remarks that this refers to persons who have been killed ‘when fleeing from battle�, as otherwise there would be no justification for the offerings to the dead described in the Mahābhārata.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Gautama (14.9-12).—‘The relations of those who are slain for the sake of cows and 󳾲ṇa become pure immediately; also those of men destroyed by the anger of the king; of those killed in battle; likewise those of men who voluntarily die by starving themselves, by weapons, fire, poison or water, by hanging themselves or by jumping from a precipice.�

վṣṇ (22.47, 52).—‘The relatives of those who have been killed by jumping from a precipice, or by fire or by fasting, or by water, in battle, by lightning, or by the king, do not become impure; nor those who perform the king’s orders, if the king wishes them to he pure.�

Yama (貹첹, p. 907).—‘The relatives of those killed in a riot, or those of suicides, or of those who have been drowned in river or killed by wild animals, become purified instantaneously.�

ṛh貹پ (Do.).—‘For the relations of those killed in rots, or by lightning, or by the king, or in the saving of cows and 󳾲ṇa, they have declared instantaneous purification; but some sages have declared that the impurity lasts three days.�

ʲś (3.29-30).—‘For the relations of persons who have died for the sake of 󳾲ṇa, or in the saving of prisoners or cows, and those who have died in battle, the impurity lasts for one night.�

Sumantu (貹첹, p. 917).—‘For those killed by jumping from a precipice, or by ûre or water, or in battle,—those who die in foreign lands, the renunciate—those killed by fasting, those killed by lightning, or those who have committed suicide by going on the Great Journey,—water-offerings may be made, and the purification is instantaneous.�

śⲹ貹 (Do.).—‘The relations of those killed by fasting or by lightning, or by entering fire or water, by fall from a precipice, or in battle, or in foreign land,—or of embryos, or of infants that have teethed,—are purified in three nights.�

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