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 1866

ESEL
UNIVERSITY
INTRODUCTION.
the other arguments which have been or can be adduced to prove the antiquity of our Manu-smriti are less conclusive. If it has been said that this work contains some very archaic doctrines which are not found in the other secondary lawbooks, that is perfectly true. But the inference regarding its age becomes doubtful, because on other subjects Manu is ahead of the other Smritis?, and because in general the development of the actual doctrines seems to have been not quite steady and continuous. Still more precarious are the arguments, based on the language of the Manu-smriti, on its not mentioning the Greek astrology or Greek coinage and similar points. As we have to deal with a recast of a very ancient book, and as its editor has utilised a good many ancient verses in compiling his recension, it is only to be expected that a number of archaic forms and phrases should be found. But it is evident that they prove nothing with respect to the period when the compilation was made, because it is impossible to decide in each case to which of its component parts the archaism belongs. As regards the remaining argumenta a silentio, they are equally inconclusive. Even if we grant, for argument's sake, the correctness of the assertion that our Manu contains no allusion to the Greek order of the planets, to the zodiac, to judicial astrology, and to Greek or Scythian dînâras, drammas, and nânakas, while all the other secondary law-books mention one or the other of these foreign importations, the omission may be purely accidental. These and similar points can be used for no other purpose than to show that there is nothing in Manu's text that compels us to place it in or after the period between 300–500 A.D., during which Greek influence made itself strongly felt in India. They possess
One of the clearest instances of this kind is Manu's doctrine with regard to the succession of females to the estate of males, where the exclusion of the wife agrees with the teaching of the Dharma-sâtras (Jolly, Tagore Lectures, p. 48). The assertion of Professor Hopkins (Castes according to the M. Dh. p. 108 seqq.), that the prerogatives of Brahmanas are greater according to Yagn. than according to Manu, seems to me erroneous, and chiefly based on an inadmissible interpretation of some passages of Manu. In my opinion the mutual relations of the castes, as described in the two law-books, cannot be used to prove a priority of the one to the other.
• E.g. in the doctrine concerning the Niyoga.
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