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 4.209
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
गव� चान्नमुपघ्रातं घुष्टान्नं � विशेषत� �
गणान्न� गणिकान्न� � विदुषा � जुगुप्सितम� � २०� �gavā cānnamupaghrāta� ṣṭԲԲ� ca śṣaٲ� |
gaṇānna� ṇinna� ca viduṣ� ca jugupsitam || 209 ||Nor the food that has been smelt by the cow, nor particularly that food which has been publicly offered, nor the food that belongs to a multitude, nor the food of the harlot, nor that which has been censured by the learned.�(209)
Medhātithi’s commentary (Գܲṣy):
�Food publicly offered,’—the food that is given at temples or sacrificial sessions, by public notice, to all coiners, without any invitation to individuals. Or, it may mean ‘what is given to one person after having been promised to another.�
The root, �ҳ�� has been declared to mean to announce; so that people regard the present verse as refering to cases where there is no announcement; and what is forbidden, therefore, is eating, without invitation, at sacrifices, marriages and such other functions.
The �ṇa,� meant by the text is multitude, company; hence the name is not applied to a number of brothers living together undivided. It is declared in Discourse IX that ‘there is a single duty operating among brothers living jointly�; and the duty therein referred to is the receiving of guests, and so forth; all which is made clear under 9.105, where the ‘eldest brother� is declared as inheriting the entire parental property; and it is this inheritance that indicates his liability to fulfil the duties also.
What is forbidden is what is not induced in the parental heritage, even though it belong in common to all.
�Harlot� is the public woman.
�Censured’� deprecated,—�by the learned�,—even though it be something edible; e.g., the lotus-stalk, the oil-cake, and so forth.�(209)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
The second half of this verse is quoted in Ѿṣa (on 3.290).
The verse is quoted in ṛtٲٳٱ (p. 451), which explains �ṣṭԲԲ� as ‘the food that is offered at sacrificial sessions and other similar occasions, to all and sundry by public proclamation�;—and in īٰǻ岹ⲹ (Āhnika, p. 495), which explains �ṣṭԲԲ� in the same manner as ṛtٲٳٱ, but quotes Medhātithi’s second alternative explanation of it as ‘what had been previously promised to another person�; �śṣaٲ�� has been added with a view to indicate the exceptional objectionability of the food;—�ṇa� is ‘multitude,’—this term is not applicable to brothers who have not separated;—�ṇi� is a ‘prostitute�;—‘what has been condemned by a disinterested person learned in the Veda, even without his detecting any of the specified defects.�
It is quoted in (Śrāddha, pp. 510 and 771);—and in ʰⲹśٳٲ첹 (p. 260), which adds the following notes: —�ҳṣṭānnam�, that food which is offered publicly with such words as ‘who is there who will take this food?�,—�ṇānԲ� food cooked by several persons jointly.
Comparative notes by various authors
Gautama (17.11).�(See above.)
(Do.) (17. 15).—‘What has been touched by the unchaste woman, the accused person, or one who is unknown, or one who is undergoing punishment, or the carpenter, the miser, the physician, the fowler, one who lives upon leavings,—of the multitude or of enemies.�
Ā貹ٲ (17.5).—‘What has been smelt by men, or by other unclean animals.�
(Do.) (18.16-17).—‘The food belonging to a multitude should not be eaten, or what has been censured.�
ղśṣṭ (14.4).—‘What has been publicly offered, or the food belonging to a multitude or to a harlot.�
վṣṇ (61.7, 9, 17).—‘The food belonging to a multitude or to a harlot or to a thief or to a singer—if one eats this he should live for seven days on milk only,—also the food belonging to a woman, a miser, one who has been initiated for a sacrifice, one who is accused of a crime, or the eunuch. What has been seen by the abortionist, or touched by the woman in her courses, or pecked by birds, or touched by the dog or smelt by the cow.�
ñⲹ (1.168).�(See above.)
(Do.) (1.161.).—‘Food belonging to a miser, a prisoner, a thief, a eunuch, an actor, a dealer in bamboos, one accused of a crime, an usurer, a harlot, a multitude, or the person initiated for a sacrifice.�