Copy pasting my reply to a recent thread. (Not blaming the OP of that post - many of us hold the opinion that Manusmṛti is a heavily interpolated text and we should discard half of it. Even I used to.)
Claiming that more than half the verses of Manusmṛti are fake is not logical or correct! Mēdhātithi has given a commentary on almost all verses of the extant Manusmṛti. For every verse you claim to be interpolated by Britishers, you're also claiming that they interpolated 4-5 corresponding commentaries for that verse. Not logical.
A better defense for the attacks on Manu:
प्रजनार्थं महाभागाः पूजार्हा गृहदीप्तयः । स्त्रियः श्रियश्च गेहेषु न विशेषोऽस्ति कश्चन ॥ २६ ॥
There is no difference whatsoever between the goddess of fortune and the women, who secure many blessings for the sake of bearing children. Women are worthy of worship and form the glory of their household
Mēdhātithi comments:
"In as much as the defects of women are capable of rectification, they are ‘worthy of worship’. When the above-mentioned verses dilated upon the defects of women, it was not with a view to discredit them, or to make people avoid them; it was done with this view that they may be guarded against evil."
The verses highlighting the defects of women don't stem from misogyny, but from an extreme concern for them, considering the absolute worst case scenarios. (We have to keep in mind that the Manusmṛti was composed starting from 5th century BCE to 3rd CEin Northern India. Northern India faced a lot of invasions from central Asia from the Śaka-s, Hūṇa-s, Kuśana-s, etc in those times, and these caused anarchy and fear among the population. Even per the Purāṇic account, Manusmṛti gives the rules for establishing civilization from scratch after the great food which destroyed everything)
As for caste:
It is true that the Manusmṛti prescribes a birth based Varṇa system. But the word Śūdra refers to different peoples in different Hindu texts. We don't know who the Śūdra-s described in Manusmṛti were. But they certainly weren't some "oppressed class". Manu talks of "Śūdra kingdoms" and "Śūdra-s, who having accumulated wealth, harass Brāhmaṇa-s" and "Śūdra-s, who, due to a slight knowledge of grammar, consider themselves superior to the Brāhmaṇa-s (ie, these Śūdra-s had access to education but misused it)". The Śūdra-s of Manusmṛti, in all likelihood, hav
... keep reading on reddit ➡I was looking at the Sanskrit of this verse and realised it had been mistranslated, changing its meaning dramatically. This has massive knock-on effects for the translations of the following verses, so I feel it's important to put a public warning of the error.
ब्राह्मणः क्षत्रियो वैश्यस्त्रयो वर्णा द्विजातयः । चतुर्थ एकजातिस्तु शूद्रो नास्ति तु पञ्चमः ॥ ४ ॥
brāhmaṇaḥ kṣatriyo vaiśyastrayo varṇā dvijātayaḥ | caturtha ekajātistu śūdro nāsti tu pañcamaḥ || 4 ||
The Brāhmaṇa, the Kṣatriya and the Vaiśya are the three twice-born castes; the fourth is the one caste, Śūdra; there is no fifth.—(4)
"stu" is the root word for praising. The indeclinable "tu," is used with a meaning similar to "but". http://sanskritdictionary.com/?iencoding=iast&q=stu%22&lang=sans&action=Search
This should read at the end basically something like this: Śūdra are once born (not educated) worthy of praise, but the fifth Varṇa is not (worthy of praise).
This translation also makes much more sense considering how every time someone of the Caturvarṇa or from the mixed Varṇas consisting of the Caturvarṇa is depicted and explicitly described as such, they are shown in a positive light (even the instances where they are sinful and wicked have the story diverting to highly praise them for a bit). Everyone not shown in a positive light can be assumed to be at least part a Varṇa outside the Caturvarṇa.
By the way, the Manusmṛti is not meant for our time as I explained here https://hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/13944/manu-smriti-as-a-source-of-controversy/43432#43432. It's still very useful for defining terms for other texts.
I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
Alot of great jokes get posted here! However just because you have a joke, doesn't mean it's a dad joke.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT NSFW, THIS IS ABOUT LONG JOKES, BLONDE JOKES, SEXUAL JOKES, KNOCK KNOCK JOKES, POLITICAL JOKES, ETC BEING POSTED IN A DAD JOKE SUB
Try telling these sexual jokes that get posted here, to your kid and see how your spouse likes it.. if that goes well, Try telling one of your friends kid about your sex life being like Coca cola, first it was normal, than light and now zero , and see if the parents are OK with you telling their kid the "dad joke"
I'm not even referencing the NSFW, I'm saying Dad jokes are corny, and sometimes painful, not sexual
So check out r/jokes for all types of jokes
r/unclejokes for dirty jokes
r/3amjokes for real weird and alot of OC
r/cleandadjokes If your really sick of seeing not dad jokes in r/dadjokes
Punchline !
Edit: this is not a post about NSFW , This is about jokes, knock knock jokes, blonde jokes, political jokes etc being posted in a dad joke sub
Edit 2: don't touch the thermostat
Do your worst!
How the hell am I suppose to know when it’s raining in Sweden?
Ants don’t even have the concept fathers, let alone a good dad joke. Keep r/ants out of my r/dadjokes.
But no, seriously. I understand rule 7 is great to have intelligent discussion, but sometimes it feels like 1 in 10 posts here is someone getting upset about the jokes on this sub. Let the mods deal with it, they regulate the sub.
We told her she can lean on us for support. Although, we are going to have to change her driver's license, her height is going down by a foot. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here but it better not be a hack job.
They were cooked in Greece.
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
He lost May
Now that I listen to albums, I hardly ever leave the house.
Don't you know a good pun is its own reword?
Two muffins are in an oven, one muffin looks at the other and says "is it just me, or is it hot in here?"
Then the other muffin says "AHH, TALKING MUFFIN!!!"
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
It really does, I swear!
And now I’m cannelloni
Because she wanted to see the task manager.
And boy are my arms legs.
But that’s comparing apples to oranges
Put it on my bill
Heard they've been doing some shady business.
but then I remembered it was ground this morning.
Edit: Thank you guys for the awards, they're much nicer than the cardboard sleeve I've been using and reassures me that my jokes aren't stale
Edit 2: I have already been made aware that Men In Black 3 has told a version of this joke before. If the joke is not new to you, please enjoy any of the single origin puns in the comments
They’re on standbi
A play on words.
Calcium, nickel, neon
My daughter, Chewbecca, not so much.
Pilot on me!!
The bartender says, "Sorry, no minors”
Nothing, he was gladiator.
Dad jokes are supposed to be jokes you can tell a kid and they will understand it and find it funny.
This sub is mostly just NSFW puns now.
If it needs a NSFW tag it's not a dad joke. There should just be a NSFW puns subreddit for that.
Edit* I'm not replying any longer and turning off notifications but to all those that say "no one cares", there sure are a lot of you arguing about it. Maybe I'm wrong but you people don't need to be rude about it. If you really don't care, don't comment.
Or would that be too forward thinking?
At work, I have a workstation.
edit: cheers u/cheer_up_richard
