DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49827#0081
66 NEW MATERIALS FOR HISTORICAL STUDY OF HINDU LAW.
Lecture noun bliata, hire, and the verb bhatayati, he hires. Profes-
nI- sor Max Muller has shown, in his recent Cambridge Lectures,
that Vriddha-Manu was acquainted with that kind of Astro-
logy whichseems to have been derived from a Greek source.
What is even more significant, a verse of Vriddha-Manu,
which is frequently quoted in the Digests, contains the rule
that a chaste widow, who has no son,shall succeed to herhus-
band. The Code of Manu, on the contrary, doesnot recognize
the widow’s claim to the Inheritance in any case, ajid this is
evidently the older opinion of the two, as will be shown in
•another Lecture. These facts tend to show that the author
of the Vriddha-Manu-Smriti, whoever he may have been,
vhis a recent writer. He was acquainted probably with
the Code of Manu, and chose that appellation in order to
ensure to his production the authority of a work composed
by the first of legislators, while distinguishing it at the
same time from the current version of the Code of Manu.
It has been argued that the epithets Vriddha, Brihat, &c.,
may have been coined in order to distinguish the several
metrical redactions existing of each early Sutra work.1 It
is, indeed, quite possible, and even probable, that several of
these epithets did not spring up before the epoch of the
Commentators. Such epithets as Brihat, “ great,” Laghu,
“small,” Cloka, “metrical,” apply to works rather than to
authors', and the two terms Brihat, “great,” and Vriddha,
“ old,” are frequently interchanged. But it is obvious
that the opinion of the Commentators has very little weight
for determining the age of any such composition, especially
as the Commentators are very careless in using these
epithets, and are not even agreed about their meaning.
Thus the Mitakshara (II. 1. 6), in quoting a passage from
Vishnu’s Dharmasutra, denotes that author, or rather his
work, Brihad-Vishnu, “ the great Vishnu,” probably in order
to distinguish this work from the metrical Smriti of
Vishnu, which is, quoted in other parts of the Mitakshara.
In other Commentaries, however, the author of the
Dharmasutra is generally called Vishnu simply. The term
Vriddha means old,” and is frequently used by the
Commentators to denote the date of an author. Some
Commentators, however, are of opinion that such epithets
as Vriddha, “ old,” imply different periods in the lives
1 See Dr. Rajendralala Mitra’s remarks, quoted in Rajkumar Sarvadhi-
kari’s Lectures, 169 note.
Lecture noun bliata, hire, and the verb bhatayati, he hires. Profes-
nI- sor Max Muller has shown, in his recent Cambridge Lectures,
that Vriddha-Manu was acquainted with that kind of Astro-
logy whichseems to have been derived from a Greek source.
What is even more significant, a verse of Vriddha-Manu,
which is frequently quoted in the Digests, contains the rule
that a chaste widow, who has no son,shall succeed to herhus-
band. The Code of Manu, on the contrary, doesnot recognize
the widow’s claim to the Inheritance in any case, ajid this is
evidently the older opinion of the two, as will be shown in
•another Lecture. These facts tend to show that the author
of the Vriddha-Manu-Smriti, whoever he may have been,
vhis a recent writer. He was acquainted probably with
the Code of Manu, and chose that appellation in order to
ensure to his production the authority of a work composed
by the first of legislators, while distinguishing it at the
same time from the current version of the Code of Manu.
It has been argued that the epithets Vriddha, Brihat, &c.,
may have been coined in order to distinguish the several
metrical redactions existing of each early Sutra work.1 It
is, indeed, quite possible, and even probable, that several of
these epithets did not spring up before the epoch of the
Commentators. Such epithets as Brihat, “ great,” Laghu,
“small,” Cloka, “metrical,” apply to works rather than to
authors', and the two terms Brihat, “great,” and Vriddha,
“ old,” are frequently interchanged. But it is obvious
that the opinion of the Commentators has very little weight
for determining the age of any such composition, especially
as the Commentators are very careless in using these
epithets, and are not even agreed about their meaning.
Thus the Mitakshara (II. 1. 6), in quoting a passage from
Vishnu’s Dharmasutra, denotes that author, or rather his
work, Brihad-Vishnu, “ the great Vishnu,” probably in order
to distinguish this work from the metrical Smriti of
Vishnu, which is, quoted in other parts of the Mitakshara.
In other Commentaries, however, the author of the
Dharmasutra is generally called Vishnu simply. The term
Vriddha means old,” and is frequently used by the
Commentators to denote the date of an author. Some
Commentators, however, are of opinion that such epithets
as Vriddha, “ old,” imply different periods in the lives
1 See Dr. Rajendralala Mitra’s remarks, quoted in Rajkumar Sarvadhi-
kari’s Lectures, 169 note.