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INTRODUCTION.
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place among Indian law-books which the first chapter sets up, and that they furnish a strong support to the view according to which the Manu-smriti belongs to a later stage · of literary development than the Dharma-sûtras.
In turning to the second point of our supplement, it will be advisable to reconsider in detail the passages of the Vasishtha-smriti, which prove the former existence of a Mânava Dharma-sûtra, and which, as the preceding discussion has established the priority of the Vasishtha-smriti to our Manu, possess a particularly great importance. The chief passage occurs Vasishtha IV, 5-81, where we read:
5. The Mânava (Sutra states), 'Only when worshipping the manes and the gods, or when honouring guests, he may certainly do injury to animals.'
6. 'On offering the honey-mixture (to a guest), at a sacrifice and at the rites in honour of the manes, but on these occasions only, may an animal be slain; that (rule) Manu proclaimed.'
7. 'Meat can never be obtained without injury to living beings, and injury to living beings does not procure heavenly bliss: hence (the sages declare) the slaughter (of beasts) at a sacrifice not (to be) slaughter (in the ordinary sense of the word).'
8. Now he may also cook a full-grown ox or a fullgrown he-goat for a Brahmana or a Kshatriya guest; in this manner they offer hospitality to such (a man).'
As has been stated in the introduction to Vasishtha2, all the four Sutras must be taken as a quotation, because the particle iti, 'thus,' occurs at the end of IV, 8, and because the identity of Sûtra 6 with Manu V, 41, as well as the close resemblance of Sutra7 to Manu V, 48, shows that the quotation is not finished with Sutra 5. If we accept this explanation
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पितृदेवातिथिपूजायामध्येव पशुं हिंस्यादिति मानवम् ॥ ५ ॥ मधुपर्के च यज्ञे च पितृदेवतकर्मणि । अत्रैव च पशुं हिंस्यानान्यचेत्य ब्रवीन्मनुः ॥ ६ ॥ नाकृत्वा प्राणिनां हिंसां मांसमुत्पद्यते क्वचित् । न च प्राणिवधः स्वर्ग्यस्तस्मामागे वधोवधः ॥ ७ ॥ अथापि ब्राह्मणाय वा राजन्याय वाभ्यागताय महोक्षाणं घा महाजं वा पचेदेवमस्मा चातिथ्यं कुर्वन्ततीति ॥ ७ ॥
Sacred Books of the East, vol. xiv, pp. xviii-xix.
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| SR No. | 007684 |
| Book Title | Vinaya Texts |
| 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 |