DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49827#0083
68 NEW MATERIALS FOR HISTORICAL STUDY OF HINDU LAW.
Lecture noticed in this Lecture shows how vast the extent of Smriti
IIL literature must have been, and how intensely its partial loss
Date of the I|as deplored by the student of Hindu Law. Schools
metrical of law were spread, no qloubt, over the whole Continent of
moments. India, and it is impossible to tell how much of the diver-
sity of doctrine observable in the Smriti fragments has to
be attributed to the different times, and how much to the
different countries in which their authors may be supposed
to have lived. Thus much however is certain, that the
most recent metrical Smriti fragments even must be older
than the 11th and 12th centuries in which most of
them are quoted as inspired writers by Vijnanegvara and
Apararka, and older for the most part even than the 8th
or 9th century, in which many of them are quoted by
Medhatithi.
IntherUleS re^errin£ Brihaspati and Katyayana to the 6th or 7th
Sanskrit century, as has been done before, these two writers are
play Mric- juade nearly contemporary1 with the author of the well-
cw..d.ivj. j<nown qrama Mricchakatika, and as that drama contains
a full description of a Judicial Proceeding, which is pro-
bably pourtrayed from life, it is interesting to compare
that description with the rules given by Brihaspati and
Katyayana. One of the most curious features in the
Judicial Proceeding described in the Mricchakatika, viz.,
this, that all the statements of the parties and witnesses
are written down on the floor by the scribe, corres-
ponds actually to the rules of Brihaspati, Katyayana
and Vyasa on the subject. Thus it is ordained by
Brihaspati that the Judge shall cause the plaint to be
written2 and re-written on the floor, till everything in
it is quite clear, and though he refers to other modes of
committing the depositions of the parties and witnesses
to writing besides this, it appears to have been a very
common proceeding to use the floor of the judgment-hall
for that purpose* The Judge in the Mricchakatika is
assisted by the chief of a guild of merchants, by a
scribe and by a beadle. Katyayana says that a few vir-
tuous merchants shkll be present at every Judicial assembly.
Brihaspati, Narada and others name the scribe and the
1 This drama must have been composed before the time of King
Criharsha, 600 A.D., but it is probably not much older.
2 In the law-suit described in the well-known farce Dhurtasamagama,
the plaint is likewise written on the floor (HITT fWUsTt^r). See
Fuhrer, Lehre von den Schriften, p. 30.
Lecture noticed in this Lecture shows how vast the extent of Smriti
IIL literature must have been, and how intensely its partial loss
Date of the I|as deplored by the student of Hindu Law. Schools
metrical of law were spread, no qloubt, over the whole Continent of
moments. India, and it is impossible to tell how much of the diver-
sity of doctrine observable in the Smriti fragments has to
be attributed to the different times, and how much to the
different countries in which their authors may be supposed
to have lived. Thus much however is certain, that the
most recent metrical Smriti fragments even must be older
than the 11th and 12th centuries in which most of
them are quoted as inspired writers by Vijnanegvara and
Apararka, and older for the most part even than the 8th
or 9th century, in which many of them are quoted by
Medhatithi.
IntherUleS re^errin£ Brihaspati and Katyayana to the 6th or 7th
Sanskrit century, as has been done before, these two writers are
play Mric- juade nearly contemporary1 with the author of the well-
cw..d.ivj. j<nown qrama Mricchakatika, and as that drama contains
a full description of a Judicial Proceeding, which is pro-
bably pourtrayed from life, it is interesting to compare
that description with the rules given by Brihaspati and
Katyayana. One of the most curious features in the
Judicial Proceeding described in the Mricchakatika, viz.,
this, that all the statements of the parties and witnesses
are written down on the floor by the scribe, corres-
ponds actually to the rules of Brihaspati, Katyayana
and Vyasa on the subject. Thus it is ordained by
Brihaspati that the Judge shall cause the plaint to be
written2 and re-written on the floor, till everything in
it is quite clear, and though he refers to other modes of
committing the depositions of the parties and witnesses
to writing besides this, it appears to have been a very
common proceeding to use the floor of the judgment-hall
for that purpose* The Judge in the Mricchakatika is
assisted by the chief of a guild of merchants, by a
scribe and by a beadle. Katyayana says that a few vir-
tuous merchants shkll be present at every Judicial assembly.
Brihaspati, Narada and others name the scribe and the
1 This drama must have been composed before the time of King
Criharsha, 600 A.D., but it is probably not much older.
2 In the law-suit described in the well-known farce Dhurtasamagama,
the plaint is likewise written on the floor (HITT fWUsTt^r). See
Fuhrer, Lehre von den Schriften, p. 30.