Vinaya Texts

SR No.: 007684
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids, Hermann Oldenberg
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2523
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 1782

INTRODUCTION.
xxi
of the Kathaka Satras. These latter discoveries are of particularly great importance, because they fully establish the truth of the assumption, underlying Professor Max Müller's theory, that in post-Vedic times the Brâhmans did not hesitate to change the character of ancient school-books and to convert them into generally binding law-codes, either by simply taking them out of their connexion with the Srauta and Grihya-sätras or by adding besides matter which, in the eyes of orthodox Hindus, must greatly increase the sentiment of reverence felt for them. It is especially the case of the so-called Vishnu-smriti, which deserves the most careful attention. The beginning and the end of the work distinctly characterise it as a revelation of the god Vishnu. Vishnu, Vaishnava worship and philosophy are on various occasions praised and recommended in the course of the discussions. Yet the difference in the style of the introductory and concluding chapters leaves no doubt that they are later additions, and the perfectly credible tradition of the Pandits of Puna and Benares, the occurrence of particular sacred texts known to the Kathakas alone, as well as the special resemblance of its contents to those of the Kathaka Grihya-satra, make it perfectly certain that the work is only a Vaishnava recast of the Kathaka Dharmasūtra. We thus obtain in this case the confirmation of almost every fact which the conversion of the Dharma-sútra of the Manavas into the revealed code of the Praga pati Manu presupposes, with the sole exception of the substitution of epic Slokas for aphoristic prose. With respect to the last point, the further exploration of the Smriti literature has furnished numerous analogies. As an instance to the point we can now cite the fragments of the so-called Brihat Sankha Dharmasastra, which, as the quotations show, must
1 A quotation in Govindaraga's Smritimasgari, fol.126, 1. 8 (India Office Collection, No. 1736), contains a very small portion of this work. When explaining the penance for the murder of a Brahmana, mentioned Manu XI, 74, Govindaragasy, अवस्वानं कठसूत्रता याख्यानं [] वक्त्यागो भक्तायागो वस्त्रत्याग
पणम्॥ The quotation shows that the Dharma-s&tra of the Kathas mentioned the fanciful expiations ending in death, which are given in all the ancient law-books, but omitted in the Vishnu-smriti.
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