DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52452#0019
INTRODUCTION.
XV
in MSS., in which law, properly so-called, is treated by
itself, without any reference to rules of penance, diet, and
other religious subjects; and it throws a new and an
important light on the political and social institutions of
ancient India at the time of its composition. Several of
the doctrines propounded by Narada are decidedly opposed
to, and cannot be viewed in the light of developments from,
the teaching of Manu. Thus e.g. Narada advocates the
practice of Niyoga, or appointment of a widow to raise
offspring to her deceased husband ; he declares gambling
to be a lawful amusement, when carried on in public
gaming-houses; he allows the remarriage of widows ; he
virtually abrogates the right of primogeniture by declaring
that even the youngest son may undertake the management
of the family property, if specially qualified for the task ;
he ordains that, in a partition of the family property, the
father may reserve two shares for himself, and that, in the
case of a partition after his death, the mother shall divide
equally with the sons, and an unmarried sister take the
same share as a younger son ; he lays down a different
gradation of fines from those laid down by Manu, &C.1
It may be argued that Narada would not have ventured
Their probable to differ from the Code of Manu on such
ongm. essential points as these, unless he had found
good authority for doing so in other early works or dicta
attributed to the primeval legislator of India, and that this
fact furnishes another reason for attaching some credit to
what Narada relates of the original Code in 100,000 verses,
and of its successive abridgment. Thus much is certain,
that a great many floating proverbs and authoritative
enunciations of Manu and of Vrz’dclha or Brzhan-Manu
must have existed by the side of the Code of Manu in the
times of Narada as well as before and after his period, when
they were quoted in the Mahabharata2 and in the Com-
1 See the foot-notes, passim.
2 See Narada XII, 80-88, and Manu IX, 65-68 ; Narada XVII, 1-8, and
Manu IX, 221-228; Narada XII, 97, and Manu V, 162; Narada XIII, 5,
and Manu IX, 105-109; Narada XIII, 13, 14, and Manu IX, 104, 131 ;
Narada, Appendix 30, 31, and Manu VIII, 138.
XV
in MSS., in which law, properly so-called, is treated by
itself, without any reference to rules of penance, diet, and
other religious subjects; and it throws a new and an
important light on the political and social institutions of
ancient India at the time of its composition. Several of
the doctrines propounded by Narada are decidedly opposed
to, and cannot be viewed in the light of developments from,
the teaching of Manu. Thus e.g. Narada advocates the
practice of Niyoga, or appointment of a widow to raise
offspring to her deceased husband ; he declares gambling
to be a lawful amusement, when carried on in public
gaming-houses; he allows the remarriage of widows ; he
virtually abrogates the right of primogeniture by declaring
that even the youngest son may undertake the management
of the family property, if specially qualified for the task ;
he ordains that, in a partition of the family property, the
father may reserve two shares for himself, and that, in the
case of a partition after his death, the mother shall divide
equally with the sons, and an unmarried sister take the
same share as a younger son ; he lays down a different
gradation of fines from those laid down by Manu, &C.1
It may be argued that Narada would not have ventured
Their probable to differ from the Code of Manu on such
ongm. essential points as these, unless he had found
good authority for doing so in other early works or dicta
attributed to the primeval legislator of India, and that this
fact furnishes another reason for attaching some credit to
what Narada relates of the original Code in 100,000 verses,
and of its successive abridgment. Thus much is certain,
that a great many floating proverbs and authoritative
enunciations of Manu and of Vrz’dclha or Brzhan-Manu
must have existed by the side of the Code of Manu in the
times of Narada as well as before and after his period, when
they were quoted in the Mahabharata2 and in the Com-
1 See the foot-notes, passim.
2 See Narada XII, 80-88, and Manu IX, 65-68 ; Narada XVII, 1-8, and
Manu IX, 221-228; Narada XII, 97, and Manu V, 162; Narada XIII, 5,
and Manu IX, 105-109; Narada XIII, 13, 14, and Manu IX, 104, 131 ;
Narada, Appendix 30, 31, and Manu VIII, 138.