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

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from some other passages which reveal an acquaintance with the Angas of the Veda'. Manu II, 141, and IV, 98, these auxiliary sciences are mentioned in a general way. From Manu III, 185, where it is said that a Brahmana who knows the six Angas sanctifies the company at a Srâddha dinner, we learn that their number, as known to our author, did not differ from that mentioned in all Vedic works. Further, the name of the first Anga, the Kalpa, occurs III, 185, and the mention of a Nairukta among the members of a parishad shows that the fourth, the Nirukta, was also known. With the latter and the remaining four, which the author of the Manu-smriti in all probability also knew, we are not immediately concerned. But the first, the Kalpa, possesses a very great interest for our purposes. This term, as is well known, denotes collectively those Sûtras of the Vedic schools which teach the performance of the Srauta sacrifices, the rites especially described in the Sruti. Hence both Srauta-sutras and, of course, also Sûtrakaranas must have preceded the Manu-smriti. If it is now borne in mind that according to the Hindu tradition, mentioned above, all Sûtrakaranas formerly possessed Dharma-sûtras, and that in some existing Kalpas the Dharma-sûtras are closely connected with the Srauta-sûtras, it becomes exceedingly probable, nay, certain, that our Mânava Dharmasâstra is later than some of the Dharmasûtras. This conclusion is further corroborated by those passages of the Manu-smriti where the author quotes the opinions of individual predecessors. Manu III, 16 we read, 'According to Atri and (Gautama) the son of Utathya he who weds a Sûdra woman becomes an outcast, according to Saunaka on the birth of a son, and according to Bhrigu he who has (male) offspring from a (Sûdra female alone).' Under the above explanation, which is adopted by the majority of the commentators,
LAWS OF MANU.
1 See also Professor Stenzler, loc. cit.; Dr. Johänntgen, loc. cit. p. 74. 2 The form Utathya is a corruption of the Vedic Ukathya, and shows the substitution of a dental for a palatal, which is not uncommon in the Prâkrit dialects. Hence it possesses a certain value as an additional proof for the postVedic origin of the Manu-smriti.
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