MITAKSRARA is the name of several commentatorial works in Sanskrit, for instance, of a commentary on the text-book of the Vedanta philosophy, of a commentary on the Mimansa work of Kumarila, of a commentary on the Brihadaran'yaka (see VEDA), etc. The most renowned work, however, bearing this title is a detailed commentary by Vij nanes'wara (also called Vijnananatha). on the law-book of Yajnavalkya (q.v.); and its authority and influence are so great that "it is received in all the schools of Hindu law from Benares to the southern extremity of the peninsula of India as the chief ground work of the doctrines which they follow, and as an authority from which thev rarely dissent" (cf. two treatises on the Hindu law of inheritance, translated by H. T. Cole brooke, Calcutta, 1810). Most of the other renowned law-hooks of recent date. such as the Smeiti-Chandrika, which prevails in the s. of India, the Chintaman'i, Viramitrodaya, and Mayakha, which are authoritative severally in Mithila, Benares, and with the Mah rattas, generally defer to the decisions of the Mitaksharli; the Dayabblig,a of Jimatavahana alone, which is adopted by the Bengal school, differs on almost every disputed point from the Mitakshara. and does not acknowledge its authority. The Mitakshara, follow
ing the arrangement of its text-work, the code of Yajnavalkya, treats in its first part of duties in general: in its second, of private and administrative law; in its third, of purifi cation, penance, devotion, and so forth; but, since it frequently quotes other legislators, expounding their texts, and contrasting them with those of Yainavalkya, it is not merely a commentary, hut supplies the place of -a regular digest. The text of the Mitakshara has been edited several times in India. din eXcellent :translation of its chapter " On Inheritance" was published by Colebrooke in the work above referred to; and its expla nation of Yrijnavalkya is followed by the same celebrated scholar in his Digest of Hindu Lea (3 vole. Calcutta and London, 1801), when translating passages from this ancient author.