DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49827#0061
46 NEW MATERIALS FOR HISTORICAL STUDY OF HINDU LAW.
Lecture present version of the Code of Manu. Brihaspati’s date
n- cannot be placed later than about the 6th century , A. D.
The metrical Smriti of Katyayana also, a production of
the same epoch, could not have been composed, if a Code
precisely similar to the Manu-smriti had not then existed.
Introduc- The same assertion holds good in the case of the
NdraXi Introduction to the Narada-smriti, which may be referred
to the 6th or 7th century A. D.1 Th? author of this Intro-
duction refers to an abstract made by Sumati, son of Bhrigu,
of the original Code of Manu, in a way which shows clearly
that he means the now existing version of the Code of
Manu. He states it to be the version current in his own
time.
iaw-booi-s ^ie ®urmese law-books do not only profess to be
based on the Code of Manu, but they have actually a great
number of rules in common with that work. Thus the rules
laid down in the Manusara, a Pali work, on the subjects
of boundary disputes and of incompetent witnesses,
very closely with the corresponding sections of the
Code of Manu, and the Damathat, which is written in the
Burmese language, has the eighteen titles of law, the
twelve kinds of sons, the three sorts of sureties, the
privileges granted to the senior sons at the distribution
of the patrimony, and other characteristic rules in common
with the Code of Manu.2 The Burmese law-books cannot
be modern works, as all the successive dynasties of Burma,
and of Arracan, Pegu, &c., are said to have governed their
people in accordance with the Laws of Manu, and to have
promulgated Codes founded on them. The Siamese Laws
are, in their turn, derived from the Damathat of Burmah.
The Rev. Dr. Fuhrer refers the composition of the earliest
law-books of Burmah to the 3rd century A.D.
The Mana- -5. Several of those references to the utterances of
vas. Manu, which dre found in Vedic works, may be actually
1 The Introduction to the Narada-smriti can hardly be as old as the
body of the work (see the Preface to my English version, p. v). Still it
must be allowed a considerable antiquity, as Medhatithi quotes it as the
genuine production of N&ada. He says (Gloss on Manu. I. 58). “Narada
states as follows : That book consisting of a hundred thousand (clokas)
was composed by Prajapati. ffihas been successively shortened by Manu
and his successors.” This, though no verbatim quotation of the Introduc-
tion to Narada, shows that Medhatithi was perfectly acquainted with its
contents. As to the original version of the Introductiqn to Narada, see
Lecture III.
2 See Rost, On the Manusara, in the 1st vol. of the Indische Studien ;
Damathat, pp. 69, 96, 275, 314.
Lecture present version of the Code of Manu. Brihaspati’s date
n- cannot be placed later than about the 6th century , A. D.
The metrical Smriti of Katyayana also, a production of
the same epoch, could not have been composed, if a Code
precisely similar to the Manu-smriti had not then existed.
Introduc- The same assertion holds good in the case of the
NdraXi Introduction to the Narada-smriti, which may be referred
to the 6th or 7th century A. D.1 Th? author of this Intro-
duction refers to an abstract made by Sumati, son of Bhrigu,
of the original Code of Manu, in a way which shows clearly
that he means the now existing version of the Code of
Manu. He states it to be the version current in his own
time.
iaw-booi-s ^ie ®urmese law-books do not only profess to be
based on the Code of Manu, but they have actually a great
number of rules in common with that work. Thus the rules
laid down in the Manusara, a Pali work, on the subjects
of boundary disputes and of incompetent witnesses,
very closely with the corresponding sections of the
Code of Manu, and the Damathat, which is written in the
Burmese language, has the eighteen titles of law, the
twelve kinds of sons, the three sorts of sureties, the
privileges granted to the senior sons at the distribution
of the patrimony, and other characteristic rules in common
with the Code of Manu.2 The Burmese law-books cannot
be modern works, as all the successive dynasties of Burma,
and of Arracan, Pegu, &c., are said to have governed their
people in accordance with the Laws of Manu, and to have
promulgated Codes founded on them. The Siamese Laws
are, in their turn, derived from the Damathat of Burmah.
The Rev. Dr. Fuhrer refers the composition of the earliest
law-books of Burmah to the 3rd century A.D.
The Mana- -5. Several of those references to the utterances of
vas. Manu, which dre found in Vedic works, may be actually
1 The Introduction to the Narada-smriti can hardly be as old as the
body of the work (see the Preface to my English version, p. v). Still it
must be allowed a considerable antiquity, as Medhatithi quotes it as the
genuine production of N&ada. He says (Gloss on Manu. I. 58). “Narada
states as follows : That book consisting of a hundred thousand (clokas)
was composed by Prajapati. ffihas been successively shortened by Manu
and his successors.” This, though no verbatim quotation of the Introduc-
tion to Narada, shows that Medhatithi was perfectly acquainted with its
contents. As to the original version of the Introductiqn to Narada, see
Lecture III.
2 See Rost, On the Manusara, in the 1st vol. of the Indische Studien ;
Damathat, pp. 69, 96, 275, 314.