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REESE LIR
(UNIVERSITY
IBRARY
INTRODUCTION.
widows, which Vasishtha allows without hesitation, and even extends to the wives of emigrants. But as most of these opinions occur also in some of the decidedly later metrical Smritis, and disputes on these subjects seem to have existed among the various Brâhmanical schools down to a late period, it would be hazardous to use them as arguments for the antiquity of the Satra.
The following points bear on the question where the original home of the Vedic school, which produced the Dharma-sútra, was situated. First, the author declares India north of the Vindhyas, and especially those portions now included in the North-western Provinces, to be the country where holy men and pure customs are to be found, I, 8–16. Secondly, he shows a predilection for those redactions of the Veda and those Satras which belong to the northern half of India, viz. for the Kathaka, the Vagasaneyisâkhâ, and the Sûtras of Manu and Hârîta. Faint as these indications are, I think, they permit us to conclude that the Sätra belongs to a Karana settled in the north.
As regards the materials on which the subjoined translation is based, I have chiefly relied on the Benares edition of the text, with the commentary of Krishnapandita Dharmadhikârî, and on a rough edition with the varietas lectionum from the two MSS. of the Bombay Government Collection of 1874-751, B. no. 29 and Bh. no. 30, a MS. of the Elphinstone College Collection of 1867–68, E. no. 23 of Class VI, and an imperfect apograph F. in my own collection, which was made in 1864 at Bombay. The rough edition was prepared under my superintendence by Vâmanâkârya Ghalkîkar, now teacher of Sanskrit in the Dekhan College, Puna. When I wrote the translation, the Bombay Government MSS. were not accessible to me. I could only use my own MS. and, thanks to the kindness of Dr. Rost, Colebrooke's MS., I. O. no. 913, from which the now worthless Calcutta editions have been derived either immediately or mediately. These materials belong to two groups. The Bombay MS. B., which comes from Benares, closely agrees with Krishnapandita's text; and E., though
See Report on Sanskrit MSS. 1874-75, p. II.
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