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 1840

INTRODUCTION.
Ixxix
it seems, just because the teaching of our Manu agrees with the Dharma-sätras, more probable that the author of the Mahabharata makes here, as in other cases, a random appeal to Manu's name merely in order to give weight to his peculiar opinion.
There are two other longer pieces in the Mahabharata which are ascribed to Manu. In one case it is perfectly evident that there exists no connexion with our Smriti. The philosophical conversation between Manu and Brihaspati, which fills chapters 200–206 of Mah. XII, has neither any distinctive doctrines nor any verses in common with the Månava Dharmasastra. On the contrary, it shows a leaning towards the Vaishnava creed.
With respect to the second passage, Mah. XII, 36, 3–50, a doubt is at least possible. It contains an ancient legend' (purana itihasa), narrating how Manu revealed in the beginning to the sages the law regarding food, and some miscellaneous rules concerning worthy recipients, gifts, Veda-study, and penances. Manu's speech consists of forty-five verses, among which two agree fully and five partly with Slokas of our Smriti'. But one of the fully agreeing verses (v. 46) occurs also in two Dharma-satras, and belongs, therefore, to the traditional lore of the Vedic schools. Though the remainder is not traceable in the older works, the faintness of the resemblance makes it, I think, more probable that the Mahabharata accidentally attributes to Manu verses now read in his Smriti, than that its author extracted them and the whole piece from a Manava Sastra.
But whatever may be the correct interpretation of the mention of Manu in these passages, it remains indisputable that the author or authors of the first, twelfth, and thirteenth Parvans of the Mahabharata knew a Manava Dharmasastra which was closely connected, but not identical with the existing text. The latter must, therefore, as Professor Weber has pointed out, be considered later than
1 Mah. XII, 36, 27 = Manu IV, 218; first pâda of ver. 28* = first pada of Mana IV, 220; ver. 28 – Manu IV, 217o; first pâda of ver. 29* - first påda of Mana IV, 2100; ver. 46 = Manu II, 157; ver. 47* = Mang II, 158.
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