The minor law books: The minor law books (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889)

INTRODUCTION.

XVI1

which belong to the latest productions of the Smrzti epoch
of Hindu Law, but its legal rules and judicial theories have
a decidedly more advanced character than either Vishzzu’s
or Ya^zzavalkya’s. The Smrzti of Vishzzu cannot belong to
an earlier period than the third century A. D.1, and the
Ya^vzavalkya SmzTti is not likely to be anterior to it in date2.
Again, the judicial trial which is described in the well-
and with the drama known drama M;zzTMakaZika corresponds
MrzWzaka/ika. jn ap essential features to the rules laid
down in Narada’s chapter on ‘ The Plaint 3.’ If, then,
the Naradlya Dharma^astra and the MrzL^/zakaZik^. are
contemporaneous productions, we have a further reason for
assigning the composition of the former work to the fifth
or sixth century A. D. It may also be noted that Narada
(XII, 74) regards sexual intercourse with a female ascetic,
pravra^ita, as a kind of incest. In the earlier Indian
dramas likewise, such as Kalidasa’s Malavikagnimitra and
Xudraka’s MzTLf/zakaZika, the position of nuns and monks
is highly dignified.
Last, not least, the European term Dinara, i. e. denarius
rr,1 A or brivapLov, which is so important for
i he term Dinara.
the purposes of Indian chronology, occurs
repeatedly in the Narada-smrzti. In the first passage
(Introd. II, 34, p. 32), Dinaras are mentioned among other
objects made of gold, and it would seem that a gold coin
used as an ornament is meant, such as e. g. the necklaces
made of gold mohurs, which are being worn in India at the
present day. ‘A string of Dinaras’ (dinara-malaya) used
as a necklace occurs in a well-known Jain work, the
Kalpa-sutra of Bhadrabahu4. It is, however, possible that
the ‘Dinaras or other golden things’ may be gold coins
simply, and that Narada means to refer to forged or other-
wise counterfeit coins. The second passage (Appendix v. 60,
p. 232) is specially valuable, because it contains an exact

1 Sacred Books of the East, vol. vii, p. xxxii.
2 Tagore Law Lectures, p. 49.
3 See, particularly, p. 27, note on 18.
4 See Dr. Jacobi’s edition, par. 36 (p. 44), and the same scholar’s translation
of the Kalpa-sutra, Sacred Books of the East, vol. xxii, p. 232.
[33] b