DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49827#0067
52
NEW MATERIALS FOR HISTORICAL STUDY OF HINDU LAW.
Lecture
III.
Minor
Smritis.
Works in
the Si'itra
style.
the Padma Parana. The Smriti attributed to Vriddha
Gautama enumerates 56 or 57 teachers of the Law.1 Nanda-
pandita, in the Vaijayanti (LXXXIII. 8), gives 57 as-
the number of the Smritis. The same figure is given in
Mitramigra’s Viramitrodaya, where it is received by add-
ing c 21 other Smritis” to the 18 principal and 18 second-
ary Smritis.2 An examination of the Indian Libraries,
as well as of the quotations contained! in the Digests and
Commentaries, has shown that, in reality, the number of
Smriti works must have been far greater even than this,
and must have amounted to far more than a hundred, includ-
ing the several recensions which appear to have existed of
each work.3 I will first offer some remarks on the works
that have been preserved complete in MS., and then pass
on to those Smritis of which we possess fragments only.
A number of minor complete Smritis has been printed in
Calcutta in Pandit Jibananda’s collection of 27 Smritis,4 5
gnd a great many others have been accessible to me in
MSS. A careful perusal of all these works has made me
inclined to assent to the judgment passed on these Smritis
long ago by Professor Max Muller, after he had read
the then accessible works of this class, to the effect that
they are utterly worthless. They certainly possess hardly
any value to the student of law, as with a very few excep-
tions concerning chiefly the Law of Marriage and Adoption,
the whole subject of Civil Law is not even touched in them?
Some of these works, such as the Smritis attributed to
Atri,6 Bpihaspati,7 Budha, Brihat, or Vriddha, Cankha, Ka-
gyapa, Kanvayana, Uganas and Catatapa,8 are written in
mixed prose and verse or entirely in prose. But part of
’ Jibananda’s Dharmashastrasangraha, I. pp. 498-499 ; Weber, Ind.
Streifen, III, p.‘513.
2 Mandlik, p. xiv.
3 For a comprehensive list of these works, see Wrest & Buhler, 27-28.
4 Nineteen of these had been printed before in Calcutta, in Bhavani-
charana’s Collection.
5 See the author’s paper on the Smriti texts in Dr. Haug’s Collection of
MSS., Journ. Germ. O/S. for 1877. These texts are for the most part
identical with those Smritis which exist in the Elphinstone College Col-
lection of MSS., Bombay, and have since been noticed in V. N. Mandlik’s
recent work on Hindu Law.
6 A recension in nine Adhyayas, four of which are almost entirely in
prose (Cod. Haug 127). See Op. cit., and Mandlik, pp.,276-77.
7 A prose recension in the R. As. Society’s Library, London. I know
it from a transcript made by Dr. Fiihrer and kindly communicated to me.
8 See Loc. cit., 128 ; Mandlik, p. 325.
NEW MATERIALS FOR HISTORICAL STUDY OF HINDU LAW.
Lecture
III.
Minor
Smritis.
Works in
the Si'itra
style.
the Padma Parana. The Smriti attributed to Vriddha
Gautama enumerates 56 or 57 teachers of the Law.1 Nanda-
pandita, in the Vaijayanti (LXXXIII. 8), gives 57 as-
the number of the Smritis. The same figure is given in
Mitramigra’s Viramitrodaya, where it is received by add-
ing c 21 other Smritis” to the 18 principal and 18 second-
ary Smritis.2 An examination of the Indian Libraries,
as well as of the quotations contained! in the Digests and
Commentaries, has shown that, in reality, the number of
Smriti works must have been far greater even than this,
and must have amounted to far more than a hundred, includ-
ing the several recensions which appear to have existed of
each work.3 I will first offer some remarks on the works
that have been preserved complete in MS., and then pass
on to those Smritis of which we possess fragments only.
A number of minor complete Smritis has been printed in
Calcutta in Pandit Jibananda’s collection of 27 Smritis,4 5
gnd a great many others have been accessible to me in
MSS. A careful perusal of all these works has made me
inclined to assent to the judgment passed on these Smritis
long ago by Professor Max Muller, after he had read
the then accessible works of this class, to the effect that
they are utterly worthless. They certainly possess hardly
any value to the student of law, as with a very few excep-
tions concerning chiefly the Law of Marriage and Adoption,
the whole subject of Civil Law is not even touched in them?
Some of these works, such as the Smritis attributed to
Atri,6 Bpihaspati,7 Budha, Brihat, or Vriddha, Cankha, Ka-
gyapa, Kanvayana, Uganas and Catatapa,8 are written in
mixed prose and verse or entirely in prose. But part of
’ Jibananda’s Dharmashastrasangraha, I. pp. 498-499 ; Weber, Ind.
Streifen, III, p.‘513.
2 Mandlik, p. xiv.
3 For a comprehensive list of these works, see Wrest & Buhler, 27-28.
4 Nineteen of these had been printed before in Calcutta, in Bhavani-
charana’s Collection.
5 See the author’s paper on the Smriti texts in Dr. Haug’s Collection of
MSS., Journ. Germ. O/S. for 1877. These texts are for the most part
identical with those Smritis which exist in the Elphinstone College Col-
lection of MSS., Bombay, and have since been noticed in V. N. Mandlik’s
recent work on Hindu Law.
6 A recension in nine Adhyayas, four of which are almost entirely in
prose (Cod. Haug 127). See Op. cit., and Mandlik, pp.,276-77.
7 A prose recension in the R. As. Society’s Library, London. I know
it from a transcript made by Dr. Fiihrer and kindly communicated to me.
8 See Loc. cit., 128 ; Mandlik, p. 325.