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 8.408
Sanskrit text, Unicode transliteration and English translation by Ganganath Jha:
यन्नावि किं चिद् दाशानां विशीर्येतापराधतः ।
तद् दाशैरेव दातव्यं समागम्य स्वतोऽंशतः ॥ ४०८ ॥yannāvi kiṃ cid dāśānāṃ viśīryetāparādhataḥ |
tad dāśaireva dātavyaṃ samāgamya svato'ṃśataḥ || 408 ||If anything on the boat happen to be damaged by the fault of the boatmen,—it shall be made good by the boatmen collectively, each according to his share.—(408)
Medhātithi’s commentary (manubhāṣya):
When a commodity placed on the boat happen, in course of the crossing, to be damaged ‘by the fault of the boatmen,’—i.e., by steering the vessel through pools and eddies, or not anchoring when facing a storm, or by not securely tightening up the boat with chains of iron or leathern thongs,—then they should make it good,—‘each according to his share,’—to the owner of the commodity.
‘Collectively’—i.e., all the boatmen that may be on the boat—(408)
Explanatory notes by Ganganath Jha
This verse is quoted in Vivādaratnākara (p. 642), which explains ‘dāśa’ (or as it reads ‘dāsa’) as ‘the fisherman and others engaged for rowing the ferry.’