ones leading the way, stopping solemnly outside the door of the house to chew leaves of the Nimb tree (Nimba-patrāni, III. 12).

After they have rinsed out their mouths and touched fire, water, cowdung, white mustard-seed, and placed their feet on a stone, they should enter the house slowly (III. 13. Cf. the account of the funeral procession in the Grihya-sūtras, pp. 205-207).

Impurity caused by the ceremonies connected with touching a corpse (śāvam āśaućam) lasts for either three nights or ten nights (III. 18. Cf. Manu V. 59, 64).

Those who preserve this Law-book diligently in their memories shall obtain reputation in this world and shall go to heaven (III. 330).

He who repeats only three verses out of this Law-book at a Sraddha causes perpetual satisfaction to his departed ancestors; of this there is no doubt. A Brahman may obtain merit, a Kshatriya may become victorious, and a Vaisya may become rich in corn and money by preserving this book in his memory (III. 332, 333).

The eighteen principal Codes posterior to Manu and

Yajnavalkya.

A list of eighteen of the most important of these has been given at p. 211. They are all extant in some form. or other, as described by Colebrooke'. Little or nothing is known about the authorship of any one of them. They have arisen from the necessity of framing new laws or modifying old ones to suit particular localities and particular periods. In order to invest them with antiquity and authority, they are all eighteen ascribed, like the Codes of Manu and Yajnavalkya, to various mythical inspired sages. The fact is, that although Manu and Yajnavalkya still form the basis of Hindu jurisprudence, many of their laws are regarded by more recent Hindu legislators as only intended for the first three ages of the world, and therefore as having no force, or superseded by

1 See Professor E. B. Cowell's edition of his Essays, vol. i. PP. 468-470. The works or their abridgments, ascribed to these eighteen inspired lawgivers, have been all printed at Calcutta.

others, in the present fourth and more degenerate Kaliyuga (see note 2, p. 187). Thus the author of the work ascribed to Nārada1 says:

Marriage with the widow of a deceased brother, the slaughter of cattle in entertaining guests, flesh-meat at funeral obsequies, and the entrance into the third order (or that of a Vānaprastha, 'hermit') are forbidden in the fourth age.

The following acts, allowed under certain circumstances by ancient law, are also forbidden in the fourth age:

Drinking any spirituous liquor, even at a religious ceremony 2; the gift of a young married woman to another bridegroom if her husband should die while she is still a virgin; the marriage of twice-born men with women not of the same class; any intercourse with a twice-born man who has passed the sea in a ship; the slaughter of a bull at a sacrifice, &c.

And the author of Parāśara's Code3 affirms:

The laws of various ages are different. Manu's Law-book belongs to the Krita age, Gautama's to the Treta, that of San-kha and Likhita to the Dvāpara, and Parāśara's Code to the Kali age.

Many modern lawyers, however, regard the whole of Smriti, beginning with Manu, as one, and assert that the inconsistencies and contradictions it contains are all capable of explanation.

I here annex a few particulars relative to the eighteen principal Codes posterior to Manu and Yajnavalkya :

1. That attributed to Atri, one of Manu's ten Prajāpatis (I. 35), is in verse, and written in a perspicuous style. 2. That of Vishnu is also in verse, and is regarded as an excellent treatise, an abridgment of which is also extant. 3. That of Hārīta, on the contrary, is in prose, but has been abridged in a metrical form. 4. That of Uśanas or Sukra is in verse, and an abridgment is extant. 5. A short treatise of about seventy verses is ascribed to Angiras, one of Manu's Prajapatis and Maharshis (I. 35). 6. A tract consisting of one hundred verses, commented on by

1 Quoted by Sir W. Jones, vol. viii. p. 153.

2 As, for example, the Sautrāmaṇī.

Quoted by Professor Stenzler in his preface to Yajnavalkya.

12. A law13, 14. Two

Kullūka-bhaṭṭa, is mythically attributed to Yama (brother of Manu Vaivasvata), ruler of the world of spirits. 7. That of Āpastamba is in prose, but an abridgment in verse also exists. 8. Samvarta's Code has also a metrical abridgment. 9. Kātyāyana's law-treatise is full and perspicuous. 10. Vrihaspati's has been abridged, and it is doubtful whether we possess the abridgment or the Code itself. II. Parāśara's treatise is regarded by some as the highest authority for the Kali or fourth age of the world. It has been commented on by Madhavācārya. treatise is ascribed to the celebrated Vyāsa, son of Parāśara. separate tracts in verse by Sankha and Likhita exist, but treatise in prose is the one usually cited by Kullūka and others. It is supposed to be adapted to the Dvāpara age. 15. A Code in verse of no special interest is attributed to Daksha, one of Manu's ten Prajapatis (I. 35). 16. A prose treatise written in a clear style bears the name of Gautama. It is held to have been written for the Treta age. 17. Sātātapa's Code is chiefly on penance and expiation. There is an abridgment of it in verse. 18. The treatise attributed to Vasishṭha, another of Manu's Prajapatis (I. 35), is a mixture of prose and verse.

their joint

Of other codes ascribed to various mythical lawgivers in the Padma-puraṇa &c. it will be sufficient to mention. those of Marići, Pulastya, Bhrigu, Narada (Manu I. 35), Kasyapa, Viśvāmitra, Gārgya, Baudhāyana, Paiṭhīnasi, Sumantu, Lokākshi, Kuthumi or Kuṭhumi, and Dhaumya.

Besides, there are a vast number of legal treatises and commentaries based on ancient codes by modern lawyers, whose works are current and more or less esteemed as authorities in different parts of India. They form five schools, of which I here give a brief account.

The Five Schools of Hindu Law.

These are the schools of-1. Bengal, 2. Benares, 3. Mithilā (North Behār and Tirhut), 4. Madras (Drāviḍa), and 5. Bombay (Maha-rashtra)1. There are certain books.

1 I have here consulted Mr. Herbert Cowell's Tagore Law Lectures, copies of which have always been kindly given to me by the Senate of the Calcutta University.

X

regarded as special authorities in each of these principal schools.

1. In Bengal both Manu and Yajnavalkya are of course held in great reverence as original sources of law. We have already noted that the best commentary on Manu is one called Manv-artha-muktāvalī, by Kullūkabhaṭṭa (see p. 221). There is also a commentary by Medhätithi (partially lost, and completed by another author); another by Govinda-raja; another by Dharanidhara, Bhaguri, and others. To Yajnavalkya belong at least four other commentaries besides the Mitāksharā, viz. that of Apararka (which is the oldest of all); of Śūla-pāņi (called the Dipa-kalikā); of Deva-bodha, and of Viśva-rūpa. Šūla-pāni is also the author of a work on penance and expiation. The Mitāksharā of Vijñāneśvara1 is, however, the principal commentary on Yajnavalkya (as before noticed). It is much studied in Bengal, but the chief authority in the Bengal school is a well-known work, somewhat different in character and principles, called the Daya-bhāga or treatise on inheritance,' ascribed to Jimūta-vāhana, by some thought to have been a prince of the house of Silara, who either composed this work himself or caused it to be compiled rather earlier than the beginning of the sixteenth century. It should be stated that both the Mitakshara and Daya-bhāga are developments of, rather than commentaries on, Manu and Yājňavalkya. Although they profess to be based on these ancient books, they sometimes modify the laws there propounded to suit a more advanced social system. In other

1

Vijnaneśvara belonged to a sect of Sannyasins founded by Sankarāćārya, and his commentary may have been written as early as the ninth century of our era.

2 Translated by Colebrooke. Jimūta-vāhana's work seems to have been called Dharma-ratna, and only the chapter on inheritance is preserved.

cases they discuss doubtful points and supply omissions; while they, in their turn, have been commented on by succeeding lawyers, whose works introduce still further modifications on various important points1, thus:

Three principal commentaries on the Mitāksharā are named, viz. the Subodhini of Viśveśvara-bhaṭṭa (thought by Colebrooke to be as old as the fourteenth century); a later work by Balam-bhaṭṭa; and a third (called the Pratītāksharā) by Nanda-pandita (who was also the author of the work on adoption called Dattaka-mīmānsā and of the Vaijayanti (see next page). The commentaries on the Daya-bhāga are numerous. Some of these (published under the patronage of Prasanna Kumār Thākur) are, that of Srikrishna-tarkālan-kāra, which, with a treatise by the same author called Daya-krama-san-graha, is highly esteemed in Bengal; that of Sri-nāthācārya-ćūḍāmaṇi; that of Aéyuta-ćakravartin; and that of Maheśvara. Before any of these ought to be placed the works of a celebrated Brahman (who lived at the beginning of the sixteenth century), named Raghu-nandana, in about twenty-seven books, on rites and customs and the times of their observance. His treatises, intended to comment on and support Jimuta-vāhana, are called Smriti-tattva, Tithi-tattva, &c., the former including the Vyavahāra-tattva and Dāya-tattva2.

2. As regards the school of Benares and Middle India it should be noted that the Mitaksharā of Vijnaneśvara is acknowledged as an authority, and studied by the adherents of this school, as it is to a certain extent by all five schools. But in the Benares school certain popular commentaries on the Mitāksharā, such as the Vīra-mitrodaya of Mitra-miśra and the Vivāda-tāṇḍava of Kamalākara, have great weight.

3. In the Maithila school or that of Mithila (North Behar and Tirhut), besides the Code of Yajnavalkya with the

1 The certainty we feel as to the accuracy of the texts of all important Sanskrit works is due to the practice of writing commentaries, which always quote the words of the original, and so prevent changes. Again, the accuracy and genuineness of the best commentaries is secured by other commentaries on them.

2 Printed at Calcutta in 1828. Raghu-nandana is often called Smartabhaṭṭācārya.