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 8.341
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
द्विजोऽध्वगः क्षीणवृत्तिर्द्वाविक्ष� द्वे � मूलक� �
आददानः परक्षेत्रात्� दण्ड� दातुमर्हति � ३४� �dvijo'dhvaga� kṣīṇavṛttirdvāvikṣ� dve ca mūlake |
ādadāna� parakṣetrātna daṇḍa� dātumarhati || 341 ||If a twice-born person, running short of provisions while on a journey, takes two sugar-cane stalks, or two roots, from another man’s field, he does not deserve to be made to pay a fine.�(341)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
The text has used the term �twice-born person� with a view to preclude Śū.
�On a journey’�i.e., not an inhabitant of the same village;—hut there also he should be one �who has run short of provisions’�i.e., whose journey-rations have been exhausted.
�Two sugar-cane stalks� and �two roots�;—these are mentioned only by way of illustration, indicating small quantities of green vegetables, mudga -grains, leguminous grains and so forth. Says another Smṛti-text—‘There is no prohibition regarding leguminous grains, cucumber and grass.�
�From another man’s field’�i.e., from a place belonging to another person;—even though it be within an enclosure.�(341)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Ѿṣa (2.275), to the effect that there is no punishment for way-farers stealing some little things on the way. ṭṭī adds the following notes:—�岵,� way-farer,—�ṣīṇṛtپ�,� with his food-supply exhausted.
It is quoted in ʲś (Vyavahāra, p. 314);—in վ岹Գ峾ṇi (p. 146), which explains �ṣīṇṛtپ�� as having no food for the journey;—and in ṃsū (p. 124).
Comparative notes by various authors
See Manu, 11.16-17.