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 8.310
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
अधार्मिक� त्रिभिर्न्यायैर्निगृह्णीयात् प्रयत्नत� �
निरोधनेन बन्धेन विविधे� वधेन � � ३१� �adhārmika� tribhirԲairnigṛhṇīyāt prayatnata� |
nirodhanena bandhena vividhena vadhena ca || 310 ||He shall carefully suppress the unrighteous by three modes (of restraint)—by imprisonment, by enchaining and by various forms of ‘immolation.’�(310)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
Having duly emphasised, by means of valedictory declarations, the duty of restraining thieves, the text proceeds to lay down the law regarding punishments.
�The unrighteous’—stands, in this context, for the thief; him the king shall �suppress’—keep in cheek—�by three modes of restraint,’� the term �Բ? (Բa?)� being used in the literal sense of ‘restraint.�
�Imprisonment,’Ĕconfinement in the royal fort, or in the prison-house.
�Enchaining’� keeping in the prison-house, but in chains. �Various forms of immolation,’�i.e., beginning from beating and ending with actual death caused by the killing of the body.
That the methods of restraint are three would have been clear from the enumeration itself; hence the addition of the epithet �three� is to be taken as serving the purpose of indicating that there are other methods of restraint also; such as the pouring of heated oil and so forth.�(310)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in վ岹ٲ첹 (p. 630), which adds the following notes:—�첹� means, from the context, the thief,—�Բai��, restraints, checks,—�nirodhana�, throwing into prison,—�bandha�, restricting freedom by means of chains and so forth, —�vividhena vadhena�, in the form of beating and the like.
Comparative notes by various authors
(verses 8.310-311)
岹 (Theft, 61).—‘Let the King practise the duties of his office, and follow the rule of inflicting punishments, faithful to the tenets of the sacred law. Let him accordingly, as governor, destroy the evil-doers, after having traced them by the application of cunning stratagems and arrested them.�
ṛh貹پ (27.4 et seq.).—‘When he has discovered an offender, the King shall inflict one of the various kinds of punishments on him, viz., gentle admonition, harsh reproof, corporal punishment, or one of the four gradations of fines; he shall inflict gentle admonition when the offence is very light; harsh reproof, for a crime of the first degree; a fine for crime of the middle degree, and arrest in the case of high treason. Banishment also may be resorted to by the King.�