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xviii
of mankind. The latter view seems, however, the more likely one, as it is customary in the Smritis to ascribe the revelation of social institutions, ceremonies, and penances to Pragâpati, who, in the older works, occupies much the same position as Brahmâ, the creator, in the later religious systems. It is not impossible that some of the references to Yama, e. g. XI, 20, have to be explained in the same manner. But other passages, attributed to Yama, e. g. XVIII, 13-16, seem to have been taken from a work which was considered the production of the Dharmarâga. Of course, none of the Yamasmritis, which exist in the present day, can be meant. The quotations from Manu are numerous1. They have all been taken from a book attributed to a Manu, and possess a very high interest for the history of the present metrical Manusmriti. For the prose passage from the Mânava, given IV, 5, furnishes the proof that the author of the Vâsishtha Dharmasâstra quotes from a Dharma-sûtra attributed to a Manu, while other quotations show that the Mânava Dharma-sûtra contained, also, verses, some of which, e. g. XIX, 37, were Trishtubhs, and that a large proportion of these verses has been embodied in Bhrigu's version of the Manusmriti. Fifteen years ago 2 I first called attention to Vasishtha's prose quotation from the Mânava, and pointed out that, if the MSS. of the Vâsishtha Dharmasâstra were to be trusted, a small piece of the lost Mânava Dharma-sutra, on which the present Manusmriti is based, had been found. The incorrectness and the defective state of the materials which I then had at my disposal did not allow me to go further. Since that time several, comparatively speaking, good MSS. of the Institutes of Vasishtha and many inferior ones have been found, and all, at least all those which I have examined, give the quotation in prose exactly in the same form. The fact that Vasishtha gives, in IV, 5, a prose quotation from Manu may, therefore, be considered as certain 3. Moreover several of the best MSS.
VASISHTHA.
1 They occur Vâsishtha Dharmasâstra I, 17; III, 2; IV, 5-8; XI, 23; XII, 16; XIII, 16; XIX, 37; XX, 18; XXIII, 43; XXVI, 8.
* Digest of Hindu Law Cases, p. xxxi, note, first edition.
3 Such, I suppose, will be the opinion of all European scholars. Those Hindus
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