The institutes of Vishnu (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1880)

INTRODUCTION.

THEVishmi-smnti orVaishzzava Dharmaj-astra or Vish/zu-
sutra is in the main a collection of ancient aphorisms on the
sacred laws of India, and as such it ranks with the other
ancient works of this class which have come down to our
time1. It may be styled a Dharma-sutra, though this
ancient title of the Sutra works on law has been preserved
in the MSS. of those Smrztis only, which have been handed
down, like the Dharma-sutras of Apastamba, Baudhayana,
and Hirazzyake^in, as parts of the respective Kalpa-
sutras, to which they belong. The size of the Vishzzu-
sutra, and the great variety of the subjects treated in it,
would suffice to entitle it to a conspicuous place among
the five or six existing Dharma-sutras ; but it possesses
a peculiar claim to interest, which is founded on its close
connection with one of the oldest Vedic schools, the Kaz7zas,
on the one hand, and with the famous code of Manu and
some other ancient law-codes, on the other hand. To dis-
cuss these two principal points, and some minor points
connected with them, as fully as the limits of an introduc-
tion admit of, will be the more necessary, because such a
discussion can afford the only safe basis for a conjecture
not altogether unsupported regarding the time and place
of the original composition of this work, and may even
tend to throw some new light on the vexed question as to
the origin of the code of Manu. Further on I shall have
to speak of the numerous interpolations traceable in the
Vishzzu-sutra, and a few remarks regarding the materials
1 This was first pointed out by Professor Max Muller, History of Ancient
Sanskrit Literature, p. 134. His results were confirmed and expanded by the
subsequent researches of Dr. Biihler, Introduction to Bombay Digest, I, p. xxii;
Indian Antiquary, V, p. 30; Kasmir Report, p. 36.