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

2

NARAD A.

country; (4) the constitution of a judicial assembly;
(5) the performance of offerings according to the
Vedas and Vedaiigas; (6) established usage; (7)
forensic law ; (8) the extirpation of offenders ; (9)
the mode of life of a king; (10, 11) the system of
the (four) castes and (four) orders; (12) marriage
laws; (13) the mutual relations between husband
and wife; (14) the order of succession; (15) the
performance of obsequies; (16) the elucidation of
difficult points regarding purification; (17) the rule
as to what may be eaten and what not; (18, 19) the
law regarding vendible commodities, and those which
must not be sold ; (20) the various kinds of crime ;
(21) heaven and hell; (22) penances; (23) the
Upanishads ; (24) secret doctrines.
2. Holy Manu, after having thus (composed) that
(book) in a hundred thousand Uokas, and in one
thousand and eighty chapters, delivered it to the
divine sage Naracla. He having learnt it from him,
reflecting that a work of this kind could not be
remembered easily by mortals on account of its size,
abridged it in twelve thousand (ffokas) and delivered
it to the great sage MarkaWeya.
3. He having learnt it from him, and reflecting on

2. The Manu who is referred to in this place is no doubt Manu
Svayazzzbhuva, or ‘ Manu sprung from the self-existent Being,’ to
whom the Code of Manu is said to have been revealed by Brahman;
see Manu I, 58. Narada is one of the seven principal 7?zshis.
He is also reckoned among the Pra^apatis, ‘ lords of creatures ’
or ‘ creators,’ and is viewed as the chief of heavenly musicians.
MarkaWeya is elsewhere called ‘ the long-lived,’ and is celebrated
for his austerities. He is the reputed author of a well-known
Purazza, called after him the MarkaWeya Purazza.
3. Bhrzgu, one of the great 7?z'shis of antiquity, is in the Code of
Manu introduced as a son of Manu, and as the compiler of the