Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 1469

276
BRIHASPATI.
the judicial proceeding described in the well-known drama Mrikkhakatika corresponds to the rules laid down by Brihaspati, as has been shown elsewhere. For all these reasons, the composition of the Brihaspati-smriti cannot be referred to a later period than the sixth or seventh century A.D.
Hitherto, those texts of Brihaspati have been entirely left aside which relate to other parts of the sacred law than Civil
and Criminal Law and Procedure. HemaReligious texts.
. dri's Katurvargakintamani, Devândabhatta's Smritikandrika, and most other standard Dharmanibandhas contain a number of texts of Brihaspati on Dâna, Vrata, Prayaskitta, and all other parts of the religious law. However, an examination of these texts has yielded no definite result, and they are not sufficiently numerous by far to admit of reconstructing the purely religious portion of the ancient Brihaspati-smriti from them. Nor is it at all improbable that the legal texts of Brihaspati may have formed an independent work from the outset, just like the Nárada-smriti, or like the Burmese Dhammathats, in which forensic law was treated by itself, without any admixture of religious elements.
The legal texts attributed to Brihaspati are so numerous as to make up in their entirety a law-book which contains a
full exposition of forensic law, hardly inferior Arrangement.
" in size to the Narada-smriti. The principles on which the texts have been collected and arranged are the same as in the case of the Quotations from Närada. The preservation of the introductory texts to several titles of law, and the occurrence of many long series of consecutive texts of Brihaspati in the Dharmanibandhas, facilitate considerably the task of arrangement, though the original position of many texts in Brihaspati's Dharmasastra must needs remain doubtful. For the chapter on Inheritance the following other works have been used, besides those consulted for the Quotations from Nârada: G. Sarkar's translation of the Viramitrodaya on Inheritance (V.); Dr. Burnell's Madhavîya and Varadaråga; Professor Bühler's edition of the Uggvalá of Haradatta ; Haradatta's Gautamiya Mitaksharâ (MS.); Nandapandita's Vaigayantî (MS.).
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