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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:

अनार्यायां समुत्पन्नो ब्राह्मणात� तु यदृच्छया �
ब्राह्मण्यामप्यनार्यात� तु श्रेयस्त्व� क्वेति चेद् भवेत� � ६६ �

anāryāyā� samutpanno brāhmaṇāt tu yadṛcchayā |
brāhmaṇyāmapyanāryāt tu śreyastva� kveti ced bhavet || 66 ||

(question).—If a child is somehow born to a 󳾲ṇa from a non-Aryan woman, and another is born to a non-Aryan from a 󳾲ṇa woman,—with which of these would the ‘superiority� lie?�(66)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

Which’Ĕdenotes question.

If the ‘seed� forms the more important factor, the children born from mothers of lower castes gradually attain the higher caste of the father; and the same principle might be applied to the case of the ‘soil� being regarded as the more important factor. So that, just as the child born to the 󳾲ṇa father from a ‘Non-Aryan,’�i.e., Śūdra—mdzٳ—�some-how’�i.e., even when the woman is not his married wife,—would attain the higher caste—so also �the child born to a non-Aryan from the 󳾲ṇa woman� would attain the higher caste, on the ground of the ‘soil� being the more important factor;—it having been declared (under 9.34) that ‘predominance attaches sometimes to the seed and sometimes to the soil’� (66)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

’Ĕ‘A Śūdra female� (Medhātithi, Govindarāja, Kullūka, Rāghavānanda and Nandana);—‘the daughter of a Vrātya and the like� (Nārāyaṇa).

۲ṛc󲹲’Ĕ‘By chance, i.e. even on an unmarried one� (Medhātithi and Govindarāja);—‘unknowingly� (Nārāyaṇa).

 

Comparative notes by various authors

(verses 10.66-73)

[See texts under 9.33 et seq.]

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