MANU is the name given to the author of the Manava Dharma Sastra, comprising the Hindu system of duties, religious and civil. It is called the Institutes. Mr. Hunter fixes the date of Manu's Code as B.C. 500'; B, c. '900 used to -be assigned to this ancient work, and some have recently brought it down to A.D. 1200. It relates to Hinduism and the laws and customs of the various races following some form of Hinduism, . and therefore seemed to Chevalier Bunsen to be a patchwork. It undoubtedly preceded, or was at least contemporary with, Buddhism. But it is posterior to Kapila, for the philosophy is that of the Sankhya to a certain extent, and it is probable that the 6th century n.C., the date given by Pro fessor Wilson as that of parts of this compilation, is the one, and the booleas. it has-come doWn to us seems merely abbreviation of a far more ancient one;;--Elphinstone says B.C., 900. It opens with an account "Qf the creation,' and goes through the category of every difficulty in which a mania a community 'can possibly be •found. It embraces the-whole 'day of man and of men, religious, political, social, domestic, and private. The duties of monarchs are laid down with as little ceremony as those of the humblest panehala. It was verbally trans lated from the original, with a preface by Sir William Jones, about A.D. 1770, and this, with the subsequent Sanskrit text by Professor Haugliton, and the translations of Ilaughton and Loiseleur Deslongchanips, made this book known in Europe. Professor Wilson is of opinion that the Institutes of Manu, though disfigured by inter polations, and only cast into their present form in about n.c. 200, are still entitled to data many authentic portions of their text from B.C. 800, which was the estimate of Sir William Jones. In fact, the Institutes are a. compilation of the laws of very different ages, races, and states of society. Many are word for word the same as the Sutra of some of the oldest rishi, and there are other unquestionable proofs of high antiquity. The people of Bengal, Orissa, and the Dravira race of the south were not Hindus when one passage was written, and Dr. Caldwell places Dravira civilisa tion through the Brahmans six or seven centuries after Christ. There is no mention of, or allusion to, Siva or Krishna, which places parts of the work before the Mababharata ; there is evident familiarity with the Vedas, persons and legends being alluded to not found anywhere else. All
such passages we could consent to consider at least as old as B.C. 800. On the other hand; there are many references to the merit of Ahinsa, non injury of animal life,' and these are probably later than Buddhism ; and there is mention of the China race, a name that sinologues say is not older than two centuries B.C. It is therefore believed that the work may have been put together about that time, though very much of it is a great deal older. The present estimation of the laws of Mann is somewhat different from that of Sir William Jones. Many of the laws are doubtless extremely ancient, in the same way that the laws Thou shalt not steal' and Thou shalt not kill' date back in all probability to the primeval period when man first became a living being. It thoroughly recognises caste. It inculcates the worship of inferior gods and goddesses, of the elements, and of the heavenly bodies, and the caste of Brahmans is to be held in great reverence.
It is not included amongst the Sutra or sacred revelations, but amongst the Sinriti or traditions. Indeed, the term Smriti implies recollections, a name which seems to indicate pretty precisely the character of the code of Manu. There is a form and completeness about the work which indicates that it was compiled long after the age which produced the Pentateuch ; and, judging from its intensely Brahnianical character, we should place it nearer to the Puranic age than to the period when the elemental worship, as exhi bited in the Vedas, was the religion of the people of India. In a word, the laws of Menu are not to be illustrated by the Vedas, but by the Pumnas; they belong not to the religion of the patriarchs, but to that of the priests and kings. The Vedas exhibit the oldest form of the Hindu religion with which we are familiar, and that was nothing more than the worship of the elements, of Agni or fire, of Indra or the rain-giving firmament, of Varuna or the waters, of Yap or the wind, and of some wino deities. Amongst the first items of information we receive on Hindu history is in a passage in .Manu which gives us to infer that the residence of the Aryan`raec was at one dine between the rivers Saraswati (Sersoty) and Drishadwati (Kaggar), a tract about 100 miles to the north-west of Dehli, and in extent about 65 miles long, and from 20 to 40 broad. Prin. Ind. Int. p. 223; Elphinstone, History of India, i. p. 388.