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THE

SACRED BOOKS OF THE EAST

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HENRY FROWDE

Oxford University Press Warehouse

Amen Corner,

E.C.

THE

SACRED BOOKS OF THE EASTTRANSLATED

BY VARIOUS ORIENTAL SCHOLARS

AND EDITED BY

F.

MAX MULLER

VOL. XXV

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS1886

[All rights reserved]

THE LAWS OF MANUTRANSLATED

WITH EXTRACTS FROM SEVEN COMMENTARIES

BY

g.

bOhler

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^

W

11

e.

I

^

wqurII

[^v]

*t^t

fwav.

[tt:]

i

^nng^hr

faiftT srarcn:

tf%-

*Tre*TK

The

fifth

and sixth verses have been transposed by a mistake of

the copyist.2

^rnif^nft fsm(sic)

[^fl]

faro

Hwfw 1 *pwtto1

ttt

ufv

^gSa^Tftjn:

a

xliv

LAWS OF MANU.latter,

and it is not improbable that they may have one of its written works. As, further, the Manu-smrz'ti rests on a Manava Dharma-sutra, and has derived from the latter a number of its verses, the most natural explanation of the partial agreement between the 5raddhakalpa and the Sm^'ti is that both have drawn on the same source, the Manava Dharma-sutra. If that is so, the latter must have been considered as authoritative by the Manavas, and have been their peculiar property. Though several links in this chain of arguments must unfortunately remain hypothetical, it seems to me, especially if taken together with Professor Jolly's and Dr. von Schroder's above-mentioned discoveries regarding the relation of the books of the Kanaka school to those of the MaitrayamyaManavas and of the Vish^u-smr/'ti to the Manu-smrzti, sufficiently strong to show that also this part of Professor Max Miiller's hypothesis is more than an ingenious conjecture. In conclusion, I may mention that two other circumstances a certain agreement between the Maitraya^abrahma^opanishad and the Manu-smrzti, as well as the preference which the latter shows for North-western India in its description of the countries where pure Aryan customs prevail (II, 17-22) may also point to a connexion of the Manu-smnti and of its original with the Manavatheoccurredin

school.

In the Upanishad VI, 37, we find quoted, as a generally known maxim, a verse which occurs Manu

Two other verses, Manu VI, 7677, agree in substance with Maitr. Up. Ill, 4 1 and some of Manu's statements regarding the Atman and the results of the gu?*asIII, 76.,

or qualities closely correspond to the doctrines taught in the Upanishad 2 On a closer examination these resem.

blances lose, however, a good deal of their significance. For the ideas expressed in Manu III, 76 are likewisetraceable in a Vedic passage quoted in Vasish/^a's Dharmasutra. The comparison of the human body to an impure

dwelling

(Manu VI, 76-77) reappears even

in

Buddhistic

works 31

.

The corresponding

philosophical tenets, finally,noteI.2

Sacred Books of the East, vol. xv,

p. 298,

See below,

p. lxxiii.

3

Dhammapada, 147-150; Johanntgen, Das Gesetzbuch

des Manu, p. 93.

INTRODUCTION.

xlv

occur in a portion of the Manu-smrzti which probably is not ancient \ and they are held by several of the specialregards the passages in Manu's second chapter which praise the holiness of the districts between the Drzshadvati and the Sarasvati, and betweenschools of philosophy.

As

Yamuna and the Ganga, they may indicate, as Dr. 2 that the home of the school which Johanntgen thinks produced the Manava Dharma-sutra lies in those districts. If that were certain, it would agree well enough with thethe,

facts

known regarding the ancientlatter are

seats of the

The

a North-western,

sect,

Manavas. and extended, as the

from the Mayura hill to Gujarat. Unfortunately, however, the Dharma-sutras of Vasish^a and Baudhayana contain almost exactly the same statements as Manu, and hence the verses of the latter possibly mean nothing more than that the Manavas, like many other Vedic schools, considered India north of the Vindhyas, andespecially the districts adjoining the sacred rivers, as the true home of Brahmanism and of Aryan purity.

Mahanzava

asserts 3

II.

While the preceding discussion has shown that our is based on a Manava Dharma-sutra which probably was the exclusive property of the Maitrayawiya- Manava school, we have now to consider some

Manava Dharma^astra

questions connected with the conversion of the locally authoritative Sutra into a law-book claiming the allegiance of all Aryans and generally acknowledged by them. The

problems which now have to be solved, or at least to beattempted, are the following: I. what circumstances led to the substitution of a universally binding Manava Dharma.yastra for the manual of the Vedic school ? 2. why was so

prominent a position allotted to the remodelled Smrttl?1 2

3

See below, p. lxix. Loc. cit. pp. 109-110. Sacred Books of the East, vol.I,

ii,

p. xxxi

;

and L. von Schroder, Maitrayawi

Sawh.

pp.xxiv-xxviii. The ancient inscriptions name Maitrayawa Brahmaas The Manava school still as donees in the Central India Agency and Gujarat.exists in the latter

country and

in

Khandesh.

xlvi

LAWS OF MANU.the conversion effected? and?

3.

how was

4.

when did

it

probably take place Though the absence of all historical information, and even of a trustworthy tradition, makes it impossible togiveit is

full

and precise

details in answering the first question,

yet, I think, possible to recognise the general cause

which led to the production of that class of secondary Smrztis to which the Manava Dharmajastra belongs *. This cause lies, it seems to me, in the establishment of special law schools which were independent of any particular .Sakha of the Veda, and which supplanted the Vedic Karanas as far as the teaching of the sacred law is concerned. Evident as it is that the Vedic schools first systematised and cultivated the six sciences which, on account of their close connexion with the Veda, are called its Angas or limbs, it is no less apparent that, as the materials for each of these subjects accumulated and the method of their treatment was perfected, the enormous quantity of the matter to be learnt, and the difficulty of its acquisition depressed the Vedic schools from their high position as centres of the intellectual life of the Aryas, andcaused the establishment of new special schools of science, which, while they restricted the range of their teaching, taught their curriculum thoroughly and intelligently. In the Vedic schools a full and accurate knowledge of thesacred texts was, of course, always the primary object. In order to gain that the pupils had to learn not only the

Sawhita text of the Mantras and Brahma^as, but also their Pada, Krama, and perhaps still more difficult pa/^as or modes of recitation. This task no doubt required a considerable time, and must have fully occupied the twelve terms of four and a half or five and a half months whichthe Smrztis give as the average duration of the studentship 2 for the acquisition of one Veda As long as the Ahgas.

consisted of short simple treatises,1

it

was

also possible to.

Regarding the various classes of secondary Smr/tis, see West andSee

Biihler,

Digest, p. 32, third edition.2

Manu

III, 1,

and IV, 95, as well as the

parallel passages quoted in the

notes.

INTRODUCTION.commit themto

xlvil

memory and

to master their contents in

the twelve terms, consisting of the seven or eight dark 1 But fortnights from the month Pausha to Vafcakha.

when the Kalpathe

or ritual alone reached dimensions as in

the Sutras of the Baudhayaniyas and Apastambiyas, while grammar developed into as artificial a system as thatof Pa/zini,

man

to

it became a matter of sheer impossibility for one commit to memory and to fully understand the

sacred texts together with the auxiliary sciences, especially as the number of the latter was increased in early times by

the addition of the

Nyaya

or Purva Mima.7/zsa, the art of.

2 The members of the interpreting the rules of the Veda Vedic schools were then placed before two alternatives.

They mightof their

either commit to memory all the Vedic texts Sakhas together with the Angas, renouncing the attempt at understanding what they learnt, or they had to restrict the number of the treatises which they learnt by heart, while they thoroughly mastered those which they Those who adhered to the former course beacquired. came living libraries, but were unable to make any real use of their learning. Those who adopted the second alternative might become great scholars in the science of the sacrifice, grammar, law or astronomy, but they could notrival

of the sacred books.

with the others in the extent of the verbal knowledge Thus the Vedic schools ceased to be

the centres of intellectual, and were supplanted special, schools of science.

by the

The

present state of learning in India proves beyond

doubt that this change actually took place in the manner described, and direct statements in the ancient text-books,as well as their condition, allow us to recognise the various The true modern representastages which led up to it. tives of the ancient Karanas are the so-called Vaidiks, men

who, mostly living on charity, devote their energy exclusively to the acquisition of a verbal knowledge of thesome98, and the parallel passages quoted in the note. According to Angas might be studied at any time out of term (Vas. XIII, 7). 2 Regarding the early existence of the Purva Mfmawsa, see Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii, p. xxvii and the verse on the constitution of a Parishad,1

See

Manu IV,

Smrz'tis the

;

quoted Baudh.

I, 1,

8

j

Vas. Ill, 20.

Xlviii

LAWS OF MANU.

sacred texts and of the Aiigas of their Sakhas as well as of some other works, more or less closely connected with the

Veda.

A perfect Vaidik

of the A^valayana school

knows

the Rig-veda according to the Sawhita, Pada, Krama, Ca/a and Ghana Pa/^as, the Aitareya Brahma/za and Ara^yaka,

the

ritualistic Sutras of Awalayana, Saunaka's Pratuakhya and the Siksha, Yaska's Nirukta, the grammar of Pa/zini, the Vedic calendar or (Syotisha, the metrical treatise called

the TT^andas, Ya^avalkya's Dharma^astra, portions of the Mahabharata, and the philosophical Sutras of Ka^ada,

and Badaraya^a. Similarly the Vaidiks of the Ya^us, Saman, and Atharvan schools are able to recite, more or less perfectly, the whole of the works of their 1 respective 5akhas as well as some other non-Vedic books But it would be in vain to expect from such men an exIt planation of the literary treasures which they possess.(^aimini,.

is

sacrifices

not the professional Vaidik who can perform the great according to the 5rauta-sutras, interpret the intri-

cate system of Pacini's grammar, or decide a knotty point of law according to the Dharma-sutra or the secondary Smriti which he knows by heart. For these purposes one

must go

to quite different classes of

of the great Srauta sacrifices lies in or Srauti, who unites with a thoroughly verbal knowledge of the sacred texts of his ^akha a full acquaintance with the

men. The performance the hands of the 5rotriya

meaning of the Srauta-sutras and with the actual kriya or manual work, described in the Prayogas. The vSrauti, as well as his humbler fellow- worker, the so-called Ya^ika or Bha#a-i, who knows the Grzhya-sutras and performs theprescribed for domestic occurrences, likewise both belong to the representatives of the Vedic schools. Theyrites

make, however, no pretence to a knowledge of the whole range of the Angas, but content themselves with studying 2 Real the Kalpa, or parts of it, and perhaps the 5iksha.

1

Regarding the necessity6.

for a

Vaidik to learn non-Vedic books, see Vas.

XXVIL2

Regarding the present condition of the Vedic schools and of Vedic learning, Haug, Brahma und die Brahmanen, p. 47 and R. G. BhaWarkar's careful paper, 'The Veda in India' (Ind. Ant. Ill, 132 sqq.) P'rom personal observasee;

INTRODUCTION.

xlix

proficiency in the other still surviving Aiigas, grammar, law, and astronomy is to be found only with those Vandits who fulfil their duty of studying the Veda by committingto

memory

a few particularly important sections, such as

the Pavamani-hymns of the Rig-veda or the 5atarudriya of the Ya^*ur-veda, or by confining themselves to the fewverses which occur in the Brahmaya^a and the Samdhya.Their chief aim is to be perfect in one or more vandana 1 of the special sciences which they study, without reference to a particular Vedic school. Thus, though a Vand'it who devotes himself to the sacred law may belong to the chiefly Vedic school of Baudhayana or Apastamba, he will not make Baudhayana's or Apastamba's Dharma-sutra the.

On the contrary, it will frestarting-point of his studies. quently happen that he possesses no knowledge of theDharma-sutra of his school, except a few passages quoted commentaries and digests. If he has read the whole work, he will consult it only as one of the many utterancesin the

of the ancient sages. He will not attribute to it a higher than to other Smrztis, but interpret it in accordauthority

ance with the rules of the secondary Dharma.s-astras ofor Ya^lavalkya. good illustration of this state of things is furnished by Saya;za-Madhava's treatment of Baudhayana in hisVyavaharamadhava, a treatise on civil andSmrz'ti.

Manu

A

criminal law supplementing his commentary on Para^ara's Though he himself tells us, in the introduction to,

the Parlyara-smrzti-vyakhya 2 that he belonged to the school of Baudhayana, and though he seems to have written

a commentary on Baudhayana's Sutras, he relies, e. g. for the law of Inheritance, not on Baudhayana's Dharma-

but on Viv7&ne.svara's exposition of Ya^vzavalkya. 3 As far as quotes Baudhayana only in three places the law is concerned, Saya^a follows the theories of thesutra,

He

.

tion I can

Ya^r-veda

add to Professor BhaWarkar's statements that Vaidiks of the White I have also heard of Vaidiks of are found also in Northern India. the Safna-veda among the Parvatiyas in the Panjab, and of the Atharva-vedain the Central India1 2 3

Bhaj^te^ftf^ ir^ngfTitrifH *ftr*n^ *3tiNh(n *pr*r**ro^TOTrafH