Verse 8.200

Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:

सम्भोगो दृश्यते यत्र न दृश्येतागमः क्व चित् ।
आगमः कारणं तत्र न सम्भोग इति स्थितिः ॥ २०० ॥

sambhogo dṛśyate yatra na dṛśyetāgamaḥ kva cit |
āgamaḥ kāraṇaṃ tatra na sambhoga iti sthitiḥ || 200 ||

Where possession is evident, but no sort of title is perceptible, there title, and not possession, shall be the proof; such is the settled rule.—(200)

 

Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):

In a case where, in connection with such things as cattle, gold, lands and so forth, one man is found to have ‘possession,’—while the ‘title,’ arising from inheritance, gift and other sources, indicates the ownership of another man,—it is ‘title’ that is to be regarded as more authoritative; and mere possession is no proof of ownership.

‘Such is the settled rate’;—the eternal rule is that mere possession does not create ownership; what sort of possession does create ownership has been explained before, under verse 147; and the seeming incompatibility of the present verse with that has also been explained under that same verse.—(200)

 

Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha

This verse is quoted in Aparārka (p. 635), which says that what is meant is that what proof of ownership is, not mere possession, but possession accompanied by ‘title’—i.e., something that indicates actual ownership.

 

Comparative notes by various authors

Yājñavalkya (2.171).—‘By title and by possession shall the rightful owner establish his claim to a lost property; if he fails to establish his claim, he shall be fined; he should be made to pay a fine the fifth part of the value of the article concerned.’