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 4.169
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
न कदा चिद् द्विजे तस्माद् विद्वानवगुरेदपि ।
न ताडयेत् तृणेनापि न गात्रात् स्रावयेदसृक् ॥ १६९ ॥na kadā cid dvije tasmād vidvānavaguredapi |
na tāḍayet tṛṇenāpi na gātrāt srāvayedasṛk || 169 ||For these reasons, the learned man shall never even threaten a twice-born person; he shall not strike him even with a straw; and he shall not spill blood from his body.—(169).
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
This sums up the prohibition of the aforesaid three acts of raising the stick and letting it fall (and making blood flow).
‘Never ’—i.e., not even in abnormal times.—(169).
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 223).
Comparative notes by various authors
Baudhāyana (1.3.8).—‘Therefore one shall not threaten the Brāhmaṇa, nor spill his blood.’