On the Sources of the Dharma-sāstras of Manu and Yājñavalkya

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O. Harrassowitz, 1895 - Hindu law - 47 pages
 

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Page 4 - ... discussions which cannot be traced in one of the old Sutras, are at least suspicious, and require careful consideration. The ultimate decision, if such passages have indeed to be considered as additions, must depend on various collateral circumstances. The safest criterion will always be the character of the ideas which they express. If these are entirely foreign to the Sutras or to Vedic literature, they may be confidently rejected as interpolations. A good deal depends also on their position...
Page 4 - ... questions. First, which portions of our Manusmr/'ti are ancient and which are later additions? secondly, whence have the additions been derived ? and thirdly, whether they have been added at one time or successively ? In our attempts to distinguish between the old and the modern elements in our Manu-sawhita we must be guided, except where we have quotations from the old Dharma-sutra, by the analogies which the other existing Dharma-sutras furnish. For it may be assumed as a general maxim, that...
Page 6 - ... ceremonies, performed by the married householder, chiefly for the benefit of his family, and the Samayacharika rules, which are to be observed by the rising generation, and which regulate the various relations of every-day life. It is chiefly in the Samayacharika, or, as they are sometimes called, Dharma-sutras, that we have to look for the originals of the later metrical law-books, such as Manu, Yajnavalkya, and the rest...
Page 5 - ... new ones. thoroughly convinced of the truth of the dogma that Manu first taught the sacred law, would not hesitate to ascribe to that sage all the maxims which seemed to him to bear the stamp of authenticity, even if others attributed them to different authorities. The answer to the next question, whether the conversion of the Manava Dharma-sutra was effected at one time or by degrees, and whether Bhr/gu's recension has to be considered as the immediate offspring or as a remoter descendant of...
Page 4 - Vish/m-smr/ti for the same purpose. But a greater degree of caution will be necessary, as this work, though in the main a representative of the Kanaka Dharma-sutra, contains also an admixture of modern elements. On the other hand, those rules and discussions which cannot be traced in one of the old Sutras, are at least suspicious, and require careful consideration. The ultimate decision, if such passages have indeed to be considered as additions, must depend on various collateral circumstances. The...
Page 5 - Hopkins' hypothesis, who, as mentioned above, considers the law-book to be a conglomerate of the Manava Dharma-sutra and of the floating sayings attributed to Manu, the father of mankind. The latter restriction seems to me unadvisable, because among the mass of corresponding pieces found in the Mahabharata comparatively few are attributed to the Pra^apati, and because a Hindu who was 1 The probability of the existence of such a body of metrical maxims would become still more apparent, if it were...
Page 5 - ... number, as, for instance, in the Dhammapada, shows affinities to verses of the Mahabharata and even of Manu. They probably took over a certain stock of ancient metrical maxims, and added a great number of new ones. thoroughly convinced of the truth of the dogma that Manu first taught the sacred law, would not hesitate to ascribe to that sage all the maxims which seemed to him to bear the stamp of authenticity, even if others attributed them to different authorities. The answer to the next question,...
Page 4 - Manava school, we have now to consider some questions connected with the conversion of the locally authoritative Sutra into a law-book claiming the allegiance of all Aryans and generally acknowledged by them. The problems which now have to be solved, or at least to be attempted, are the...
Page 3 - Visnusmrti appears to be a recast of the ancient Dharma-sutra of the Katha School, and as the Code of Manu has a great deal in common with the...
Page 7 - a very considerable portion of the subject matter contained in this work is traceable to the Sutra works of the Black Yajur-veda, especially to the Vishnu-sin rti and to the Manava Grhya-sutra, but it is impossible to ascertain whether they have been derived from this source mediately or immediately.

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