Scientific and Technical Literature

SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL LITERATURE Law (Dharma).—Among the technical treatises of the later Vedic period, certain portions of the Kalpa-siltras, or manuals of ceremonial, peculiar to particular schools, are the earliest at tempts at a systematic treatment of law subjects. These are the Dharma-sfitras, or "rules of (religious) law." The Dharmasutras consist chiefly of strings of terse rules, containing the essentials of the science, and intended to be committed to memory, and to be expounded orally by the teacher—thus forming, as it were, epitomes of class lectures. These rules are interspersed with stanzas or "gathas," in various metres, either composed by the author himself or quoted from elsewhere, which generally give the substance of the preceding rules. One can well understand why such couplets should gradually have become more popular, and should ultimately have led to the appearance of works en tirely composed in verse. Such metrical law-books did spring upin large numbers, not all at once, but over a long period of time.

These works are the metrical Dharma-thstras, or, as they are usu ' ally called, the Smriti, "recollection, tradition,"—a term which, as we have seen, belonged to the whole body of Stitras (as opposed to the gruti, or revelation), but which has become the almost ex clusive title of the versified institutes of law (and the few Dhar masfitras still extant). Of metrical Smritis about forty are known to exist, but their total number probably amounted to at least double that figure.

Manu.

With the exception of a few of these works—such as the Agni-, Yama- and Vishnu-Smritis—which are ascribed to the respective gods, the authorship of the Smritis is attributed to old rishis, such as Atri, Kanva, Vyasa, 8andilya, Bharadvaja. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether, as a rule, there really existed a traditional connection between these works and their alleged authors or schools named after them. The idea, which early sug gested itself to Sanskrit scholars, that Smritis which passed by the names of old Vedic teachers and their schools might simply be metrical recasts of the Dharma- (or Grihya-) sutras of these schools, was a very natural one, and, indeed, is still a very prob able one, though the loss of the original Sutras makes it difficult to prove. One could, however, scarcely account for the disap pearance of the DharmasUtras of some of the most important schools except on the ground that they were given up in favour of other works; and it is not very likely that this should have been done, unless there was some guarantee that the new works, upon the whole, embodied the doctrines of the old authorities of the respective schools. Thus, as regards the most important of the

Smritis, the Manava-Dharmastastra, there exist both a rauta and a Grihya-siltra of the Manava school of the Black Yajus, but no such DharmasUtra has hitherto been discovered, although the former existence of such a work has been made all but certain by Professor Baler's discovery of quotations from a Manavam, con sisting partly of prose rules, and partly of couplets, some of which occur literally in the Manusmriti, whilst others have been slightly altered there to suit later doctrines, or have been changed from the original trishtubh into the epic metre. The idea of an old law giver Manu Svayambhuva—"sprung from the self-existent (svay am-bhu)" god Brahman (m.)—reaches far back into Vedic an tiquity: he is mentioned as such in early texts; and in Y5.ska's Nirukta a gloka occurs, giving his opinion on a point of inheritance. But whether or not the Manava-DharmasUtra embodied what were supposed to be the authoritative precepts of this sage on questions of sacred law we do not know; nor can it as yet be shown that the Manusmriti, which seems itself to have undergone consider able modifications, is the lineal descendant of that Dharmasara.

The Manava Dharmagastra consists of twelve books, the first and last of which, treating of creation, transmigration and final beatitude, are, however, generally regarded as later additions. In them the legendary sage Bhrigu, here called a Manava, is intro duced as Manu's disciple, through whom the great teacher has his work promulgated. Except in these two books the work shows no special relation to Manu, for, though he is occasionally referred to in it, the same is done in other Smritis. The oldest existing corn mentary on the Manava-Dharmaidstra is by Medhatithi, who is usually supposed to have lived in the loth century. The most esteemed of the commentaries is that of Kulluka Bhatta, corn posed at Benares in the 15th century.