DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52359#0025
INTRODUCTION.
XXI
passages which have been justly noticed as marking the
comparatively late period in which that law-book must
have been composed 1: such as the allusions to the astro-
logy and astronomy of the Greeks (Y. I, 80, 295), which
render it necessary to refer the metrical redaction of the
Ya^fiavalkya-smrzti to a later time than the second century
A. D. ; the whole passage on the worship of Gazze^a and of
the planets (I, 270-307), in which, moreover, a heterodox
sect is mentioned, that has been identified with the Bud-
dhists ; the philosophical doctrines propounded in I, 349,
350 ; the injunctions regarding the foundation and endow-
ment of monasteries (II, 185 seq.)—all these passages have
no parallel in this work, while it is not overstating the case
to say that nearly all the other subjects mentioned in the
Ya^navalkya-smrz’ti are treated in a similar way, and very
often in the same terms, in the Vishzzu-sutra as well. Some
of those rules, in which the posteriority of the Ya^na-
valkya-smrz'ti to other law-books exhibits itself, do occur
in the Vishzzu-sutra, but without the same marks of modern
age. Thus the former has two Globas concerning the punish-
ment of forgery (II, 240, 241), in which coined money is
referred to by the term nazzaka; the Vishzzu-sutra has the
identical rule (V, 122, 123 ; cf, V, 9), but the word nazzaka
does not occur in it. Ya^navalkya, in speaking of the
number of wives which a member of the three higher castes
may marry (I, 57), advocates the Puritan view, that no
Sudra wife must be among these ; this work has analogous
rules (XXIV, 1-4), in which, however, such marriages are
expressly allowed. The comparative priority of all those
Sutras of Vishzzu, to which similar Glokas of Ya^navalkya
correspond, appears probable on general grounds, which are
furnished by the course of development in this as in other
branches of Indian literature ; and to this it may be added,
1 See Stenzler, in the Preface to his edition of Yagnavalkya ; Jacobi, on Indian
Chronology, in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, XXX, 305 seq.,
&c. Vishnu’s rules (III, 82) concerning the wording &c. of royal grants, which
agree with the rules of Yagnavalkya and other authors, must be allowed a con-
siderable antiquity, as the very oldest grants found in South India conform to
those rules. See Burnell, South Indian Palaeography, 2nd ed., p. 95.
XXI
passages which have been justly noticed as marking the
comparatively late period in which that law-book must
have been composed 1: such as the allusions to the astro-
logy and astronomy of the Greeks (Y. I, 80, 295), which
render it necessary to refer the metrical redaction of the
Ya^fiavalkya-smrzti to a later time than the second century
A. D. ; the whole passage on the worship of Gazze^a and of
the planets (I, 270-307), in which, moreover, a heterodox
sect is mentioned, that has been identified with the Bud-
dhists ; the philosophical doctrines propounded in I, 349,
350 ; the injunctions regarding the foundation and endow-
ment of monasteries (II, 185 seq.)—all these passages have
no parallel in this work, while it is not overstating the case
to say that nearly all the other subjects mentioned in the
Ya^navalkya-smrz’ti are treated in a similar way, and very
often in the same terms, in the Vishzzu-sutra as well. Some
of those rules, in which the posteriority of the Ya^na-
valkya-smrz'ti to other law-books exhibits itself, do occur
in the Vishzzu-sutra, but without the same marks of modern
age. Thus the former has two Globas concerning the punish-
ment of forgery (II, 240, 241), in which coined money is
referred to by the term nazzaka; the Vishzzu-sutra has the
identical rule (V, 122, 123 ; cf, V, 9), but the word nazzaka
does not occur in it. Ya^navalkya, in speaking of the
number of wives which a member of the three higher castes
may marry (I, 57), advocates the Puritan view, that no
Sudra wife must be among these ; this work has analogous
rules (XXIV, 1-4), in which, however, such marriages are
expressly allowed. The comparative priority of all those
Sutras of Vishzzu, to which similar Glokas of Ya^navalkya
correspond, appears probable on general grounds, which are
furnished by the course of development in this as in other
branches of Indian literature ; and to this it may be added,
1 See Stenzler, in the Preface to his edition of Yagnavalkya ; Jacobi, on Indian
Chronology, in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, XXX, 305 seq.,
&c. Vishnu’s rules (III, 82) concerning the wording &c. of royal grants, which
agree with the rules of Yagnavalkya and other authors, must be allowed a con-
siderable antiquity, as the very oldest grants found in South India conform to
those rules. See Burnell, South Indian Palaeography, 2nd ed., p. 95.