History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s73.1

v1.c6.s73.1

Kullūka's commentary on the Manusmṛti styled the Manvarthamuktāvalī is the most famous of all commentaries on Manu. It has been printed several times. In the following the Nirṇayasāgara edition of 1909 has been relied upon. Kullūka's commentary is concise and lucid and his remarks are always to the point. He avoids all unnecessary discussions and is never prolix. He was not however original. He drew upon the commentaries of Medhātithi and Govindarāja and incorporated a great deal from them into his own work without acknowledgment. For example, on Manu XI. 95 he simply summarises the remarks⁸⁶⁰ of Govindarāja and cites only one out of the several quotations that are found in Govindarāja's Manu-ṭīkā. He severely criticizes both Medhātithi and Govindarāja, particularly the latter. He frequently pours ridicule on the latter (vide note 713 above). At the end of his commentary he says⁸⁶¹ that Medhātithi's skill lay in expounding what texts were authoritative and of substance and what were not so, Govindarāja in concise words explained the hidden meaning of the brief text (of Manu), while Dharaṇīdhara had his own method of explanation which was independent of previous tradition; and therefore he undertook to write a commentary that would clearly set forth the real meaning of Manu. He was very proud of his achievement and says that neither Medhātithi nor Govindarāja nor other commentators explained in the way he did and that explanatory material like his would be difficult to find elsewhere.⁸⁶² He notices the explanations of Medhātithi and Govindarāja hundreds of times, discusses various readings and his commentary deserves to a considerable extent the eulogy pronounced by Sir William Jones⁸⁶³ "At length appeared Cullūca Bhaṭṭa, who, after a painful course of study and the collation of numerous manuscripts, produced a work of which it may perhaps be said very truly that it is the shortest yet the most luminous, the least ostentatious yet the most learned, the deepest yet the most agreeable, commentary ever composed on any author, ancient or modern."