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xlvi
LAWS OF MANU.
3. how was the conversion effected? and 4. when did it probably take place?
Though the absence of all historical information, and 'even of a trustworthy tradition, makes it impossible to give full and precise details in answering the first question, it is yet, I think, possible to recognise the general cause which led to the production of that class of secondary Smritis to which the Manava Dharmasastra belongs 1. This cause lies, it seems to me, in the establishment of special law schools which were independent of any particular Sakha of the Veda, and which supplanted the Vedic Karanas as far as the teaching of the sacred law is concerned. Evident as it is that the Vedic schools first systematised and cultivated the six sciences which, on account of their close connexion with the Veda, are called its Angas or limbs, it is no less apparent that, as the materials for each of these subjects accumulated and the method of their treatment was perfected, the enormous quantity of the matter to be learnt, and the difficulty of its acquisition depressed the Vedic schools from their high position as centres of the intellectual life of the Aryas, and caused the establishment of new special schools of science, which, while they restricted the range of their teaching, taught their curriculum thoroughly and intelligently. In the Vedic schools a full and accurate knowledge of the sacred texts was, of course, always the primary object. In order to gain that the pupils had to learn not only the Samhitâ text of the Mantras and Bråhmanas, but also their Pada, Krama, and perhaps still more difficult påthas or modes of recitation. This task no doubt required a considerable time, and must have fully occupied the twelve terms of four and a half or five and a half months which the Smritis give as the average duration of the studentship for the acquisition of one Veda? As long as the Angas consisted of short simple treatises, it was also possible to
1 Regarding the various classes of secondary Smritis, see West and Bühler, Digest, p. 32, third edition.
. See Manu III, 1, and IV, 95, as well as the parallel passages quoted in the notes.
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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 |