01Manu speaks, Bhrigu recites
The book opens with the great rishis coming to Manu as he sits in one-pointed meditation and asking him for the dharma of every varna and of those born between them. Manu answers with the creation of the world. Then, at the fifty-ninth verse, he hands the telling over: "This Bhrigu will recite the shastra to you in full, for he learned all of it from me." From there on the voice is Bhrigu's. The teacher is Svayambhuva Manu, son of Brahma and the first of the fourteen Manus who preside over a kalpa, and the smriti says Brahma himself taught it to him first.
02What it covers
The first adhyaya tells of creation and the ages. The second names the sources of dharma: the whole Veda, the smriti and conduct of those who know it, the practice of good people, and what satisfies one's own conscience. Then come the student's life, marriage and the householder's daily duties, food and purity, the forest-dweller and the sannyasi, the duties of the king, courts and the eighteen titles of law, inheritance, the varnas in times of distress, penance, and finally karma, rebirth and liberation.
03Where dharma comes from
The second adhyaya is the one every student of Dharmashastra learns first. Verse 2.6 names the roots of dharma, and 2.12 boils them down to four marks: the Veda, smriti, the conduct of good people, and what is pleasing to one's own self. Then the smriti draws its map. Brahmavarta is the land the devas made between the Sarasvati and the Drishadvati, and the custom handed down there is sadachara. The land where the black antelope roams by nature is fit for yajna. Much later, in the sixth adhyaya, comes the list a child in a Sanatani home may still recite: the ten marks of dharma, beginning with dhriti and kshama.
04The householder holds up the rest
Adhyayas three to five belong to the grihastha. Every day he owes five great yajnas (3.70): teaching and study to the rishis, tarpana to the pitris, the homa to the devas, bali to all beings, and food to the guest. Manu then gives an image that is quoted at weddings to this day. As every creature lives by the air, so all the ashramas live by the householder; because he feeds the student, the forest-dweller and the sannyasi with food and knowledge, his is the eldest ashrama. The same adhyayas lay down the shraddha for the ancestors, what may be eaten, and how a family regains purity after a birth or a death.
05The king and the court
When the world had no king and creatures scattered in fear, says the seventh adhyaya, Bhagwan created the king to protect it all. Rajadharma follows: his ministers, his forts, his day, war and peace, and danda, the rod of punishment, which Manu calls the true ruler. The eighth adhyaya opens the court. The king or his learned judge hears suits under eighteen titles, beginning with the non-payment of debts and running through deposits, sale without ownership, wages, boundaries, theft, violence, the duties of husband and wife, partition and gambling. It is here, speaking to the judges, that Manu says dharma destroyed destroys, and dharma protected protects.
06Karma, the gunas, the Self
The last adhyaya turns from rules to their fruit. Action is born of mind, speech and body, and Manu counts the wrongs of each: three of the mind, such as coveting another's wealth; four of speech, harsh words, lies, slander and idle talk; three of the body. Each ripens in its own kind of birth. Sattva, rajas and tamas colour every life. Then the book closes where the Upanishads stand. Of all that has been taught, the knowledge of the Self is the highest, the first of all vidyas, for by it one gains the deathless (12.85).
07Commentaries and readings
Medhatithi's bhashya is the oldest surviving commentary; Govindaraja, Kulluka Bhatta and others followed, and Kulluka's Manvartha Muktavali is the gloss printed with most editions today. The commentators often disagree with one another and adapt a rule to the custom of their region, which is how the smriti tradition itself expects dharma to be applied: the second adhyaya ranks the practice of good people among dharma's sources. Like every smriti, it holds authority only where it agrees with the Veda. The commentators also quote Brihaspati's smriti, which gives Manu first place among the lawgivers because his teaching follows the meaning of the Veda.
08Lines that stayed in speech
Most Hindus who have never opened the book know a few of its lines. "Yatra naryas tu pujyante ramante tatra devatah": where women are honoured, there the devas rejoice (3.56). "Satyam bruyat priyam bruyat": speak the truth, speak what is pleasing, but not a truth that wounds, nor a pleasing lie (4.138). "Dharmo rakshati rakshitah" is carved on gateways and printed as the motto of institutions, among them India's external intelligence agency. The verse on reverence is quoted just as often: the acharya outweighs ten upadhyayas, the father a hundred acharyas, and the mother a thousand fathers (2.145).
09In the modern age
In 1794 William Jones published an English translation, and the East India Company's courts used it and other smritis in deciding Hindu family cases. Georg Bühler's translation followed in 1886. In the twentieth century some of its rules on varna and on women were strongly criticised, and Dr B. R. Ambedkar burned a copy at Mahad in December 1927. Since the Hindu Code Bills of 1955–56, Hindu family law in India has been governed by Acts of Parliament.
What it contains
- 1Adhyaya 1
The rishis come to Manu, and he tells of creation, the days and nights of Brahma, the four yugas and the Manvantaras. At verse 59 he hands the recitation to Bhrigu. The adhyaya ends with a table of contents of the whole smriti.
- 2Adhyaya 2
The sources of dharma, the sacred land of Brahmavarta and Aryavarta, and the samskaras from conception to the sacred thread. The rest belongs to the brahmachari: his conduct towards the guru, his begging round, the Savitri mantra. 249 shlokas.
- 3Adhyaya 3
The return from the guru's house, the eight forms of marriage, and the honour due to women in the home. The five great daily yajnas, the guest, and the full rite of shraddha for the pitris. 286 shlokas.
- 4Adhyaya 4
How a snataka householder earns his living and keeps his vows. Rules of speech, study and the days when the Veda is not recited. Near its end comes the reminder that only dharma goes with a person after death. 260 shlokas.
- 5Adhyaya 5
Food permitted and forbidden, ashaucha after birth and death, and the purification of persons and things. It ends with the duties of women. 169 shlokas.
- 6Adhyaya 6
The vanaprastha in the forest and the sannyasi who wanders alone, wanting nothing. It gives the ten marks of dharma (6.92) and closes by praising the householder's ashrama. 97 shlokas.
- 7Adhyaya 7
Rajadharma: why the king was created, danda, the king's training, ministers, envoys and forts. War, alliances and the circle of neighbouring kings fill its second half.
- 8Adhyaya 8
The longest adhyaya, on the court. It names the eighteen titles of law and then works through the first of them: debts, witnesses and oaths, deposits, sales, boundaries, insult, assault and theft. 420 shlokas.
- 9Adhyaya 9
The remaining titles: the duties of husband and wife, sons and their kinds, partition and inheritance, gambling, and the king's duty to clear the kingdom of its thorns. It ends with the duties of the vaishya and the shudra. 336 shlokas.
- 10Adhyaya 10
The varnas, the communities born of mixed unions, and the livelihoods each may follow. Most of it is apaddharma, what may be done in times of distress. 131 shlokas.
- 11Adhyaya 11
Gifts to the deserving, then sins great and small and the prayashchitta for each. The vows of penance, such as the krichchhra and the chandrayana fast that waxes and wanes with the moon, are described here.
- 12Adhyaya 12
Action of mind, speech and body, the three gunas and the births they lead to. It ends with the knowledge of the Self as the highest dharma and the means to the deathless. 126 shlokas.
Famous verses
वेदोऽखिलो धर्ममूलं स्मृतिशीले च तद्विदाम् । आचारश्चैव साधूनामात्मनस्तुष्टिरेव च ॥
The whole Veda is the root of dharma; then the smriti and conduct of those who know it, the practice of good people, and the satisfaction of one's own mind.Manusmriti 2.6
यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवताः । यत्रैतास्तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास्तत्राफलाः क्रियाः ॥
Where women are honoured, there the devas rejoice; where they are not honoured, every rite performed there bears no fruit.Manusmriti 3.56
सत्यं ब्रूयात्प्रियं ब्रूयान्न ब्रूयात्सत्यमप्रियम् । प्रियं च नानृतं ब्रूयादेष धर्मः सनातनः ॥
Speak the truth, speak what is pleasing; do not speak a truth that is unpleasant, nor a pleasant untruth. This is the eternal dharma.Manusmriti 4.138
धृतिः क्षमा दमोऽस्तेयं शौचमिन्द्रियनिग्रहः । धीर्विद्या सत्यमक्रोधो दशकं धर्मलक्षणम् ॥
Steadiness, forgiveness, self-control, not stealing, purity, mastery of the senses, wisdom, learning, truth and freedom from anger: these ten are the marks of dharma.Manusmriti 6.92
धर्म एव हतो हन्ति धर्मो रक्षति रक्षितः । तस्माद्धर्मो न हन्तव्यो मा नो धर्मो हतोऽवधीत् ॥
Dharma, when destroyed, destroys; dharma, when protected, protects. So dharma must not be destroyed, lest dharma destroyed destroy us.Manusmriti 8.15
Commented on by Medhatithi, Govindaraja and Kulluka Bhatta; carried to Southeast Asia, where Burmese and Javanese law codes invoked Manu's name.