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xx
NÂRADA.
taken from the every-day life of his period, which help to throw some light on the practical working of Indian Law in those times. As an instance of this tendency I would cite his remarks on a rule concerning liability for debts (pp. 43, 44). Of course it would be dangerous to trust his philological skill everywhere, and some of his interpretations are decidedly artificial. What is worse, the Commentary of Asahaya has not been preserved in its original shape, but in a recast due to one Kalyanabhatta, whose name is entirely unknown to fame. It is just possible that Kalyanabhatta, instead of confining his activity to supplying deficiencies and correcting mistakes in the copies of Asahấya's Commentary, may have inserted some new verses in the text of the Närada-smriti as well. Such might be conjectured, for example, to be the origin of the four verses, Introd. I, 21-24 (pp. 9-13), which are quoted in none of the authoritative Digests, and objectionable as to grammar and metre. It should be remembered, however, that Kalyanabhatta declares the original work of Asahaya to have been spoiled by negligent scribes, and so the grammatical blunders may be charged to their account.
The latter half of Asahaya's Commentary being lost, I had to avail myself for the corresponding portion of the Other auxiliary Narada-smriti, of the glosses of other me.
writings. digeval writers, by whom the texts of Narada have been quoted and discussed a great deal. Their opinions have been adverted to very fully, in the chapter on inheritance especially, both on account of the practical importance of inheritance for the law-courts of modern India, and because each of the various schools of Sanskrit lawyers has been anxious to interpret the sayings of Narada to its own advantage. For the curious and somewhat obscure disquisition on fourteen kinds of impotency (XII, 11-18, pp. 167-169), I have been able to use the advice of my late lamented friend Dr. Haas, the well-known student of Indian medical science. A somewhat analogous passage in the canonical literature of the Buddhists has been kindly pointed out to me by Mr. Rhys Davids?
· Kullavagga X, 17, 1. See Sacred Books of the East, vol. XX, P. 349.
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