Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 1734

XX
VASISHTHA.
ristic prose and partly in verse. The passage furnishes, therefore, the proof for Professor Max Müller's conjecture that our metrical Manusmriti, like all the older works of the same class, is based on the Dharma-sûtra of a Vedic Sûtra-karana. In connexion with this subject it may be mentioned that the Institutes of Vasishtha contain, besides the above-mentioned passages, no less than thirty-nine verses1, which are not marked as quotations, but occur in Bhrigu's metrical Manusamhitâ. Some of them present more or less important variae lectiones. Moreover, there are four verses which, though Vasishtha attributes them to Hârîta and Yama, are included in our Manusmriti and treated as utterances of the father of mankind. The bearing of both these facts on the history of the Manusmriti is obvious. But the frequency of the references to or quotations from Manu which Vasishtha makes, teaches another important lesson. Like the fact that Manu is the only individual author to whom Gautama refers 3, it shows that in ancient times Manu's name had as great a charm for the Brahman teachers as it has for those of the present day, and that the old Mânava Dharma-sûtra was one of the leading works on the subject, or, perhaps, even held that dominant position which the metrical Manusmriti actually occupied in the Middle Ages and theoretically occupies in our days. It is interesting to observe that precisely the same inference can be drawn from the early Sanskrit inscriptions. If these speak of individual authors of Smritis, they invariably place Manu's name first 4.
Vasishtha gives only one quotation from Hârîta, II, 6. Hârîta was one of the ancient Sûtrakâras of the Black Yagur-veda, who is known also to Baudhâyana. From a passage which Krishnapandita quotes in elucidation of
1 Vâsishtha Dharmasâstra I, 22; II, 3, 10, 27, 48; III, 5, 11, 60; V, 2; VI, 6, 8, 11, 13, 19; VIII, 7, 15; X, 21-22; XI, 27-28, 32, 35; XIII, 48; XIV, 13, 16, 18; XVI, 18, 33-34; XVII, 5, 8; XVIII, 14, 15; XIX, 48; XX, 18; XXV, 4-5, 7; XXVII, 3.
2 Vâsishtha Dharmasâstra II, 6; XVIII, 14-15; XIX, 48.
Sacred Books of the East, vol. ii, p. lvii.
See e. g. the grant of Dhruvasena I, dated Samvat, i. e. Guptasamvat 207, Pl. i, 1. 7; Ind. Ant., vol. iv, p. 105.
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