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 4.131
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
मध्यन्दिनेऽर्धरात्रे च श्राद्धं भुक्त्वा च सामिषम् ।
सन्ध्ययोरुभयोश्चैव न सेवेत चतुष्पथम् ॥ १३१ ॥madhyandine'rdharātre ca śrāddhaṃ bhuktvā ca sāmiṣam |
sandhyayorubhayoścaiva na seveta catuṣpatham || 131 ||He shall not have recourse to a cross-road at midday, or at midnight, or after having partaken of meat-food at a śrāddha, or at the two twilights.—(131)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
At midday—at midnight—after having eaten, at a Śrāddha, food mixed with meat—‘he shall not have recourse to a cross-road;’ i.e., shall not stay there for any length of time. If, however, on his way; to another village, there is no other way save through the cross-road, his having recourse to it to that extent is not forbidden.
Some people add a further ‘ca,’ and explain the text to mean, ‘after having eaten at a śrāddha, and after having partaken of meat-food.’
Under this explanation, however, it would be necessary to seek for some usage in support of this; as without some such corroborative usage, there can be no justification for such disjointed construction.—(131)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 193);—in Madanapārijāta (p. 121);—and in Vīramitrodaya (Saṃskāra, p. 576).
Comparative notes by various authors
Viṣṇu (63.19).—‘he shall not stand upon road-crossings.’
Mahābhārata (13. Anuśāsana, 161.28).—‘He shall not stand at road-crossings at midday, or at midnight, or late at night, or during the two twilights.’