Parashar Smruti Part 01

Author(s): Madhavacharya, Chandrakant Tarkalankar
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 7

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
PRE FACE
We are happy to release the Volume One of Mm. Chandrakänta Tarkālaņkāra's annotated edition of Parāśara Mādhava or Parāśara Smrti with the gloss of Mādhavāchārya Vidyaranya. The Second Volume containing the Prāyaśchitta Kanda and the Vyavahāra Kānda, was published last year. The publication of the present volume has been unavoidably delayed as some portions of it could not be brought under photo offset process and had to be done through letter press. The Society published the original edition in its Bibliotheca - Indica Series as early as 1890-93. Naturally it went out of print long ago, and even the Society's library copies have become too brittle to handle. We are thankful to the authorities of the Samkara Vidyābhavana Chatuspāțhi, Tārakeswara and of the Sanskrit College, Calcutta, for kindly lending their copies which were found to be rather in a better state.
In tune with the well known concept of Manu, Acharah prabhavo Dharmah Parāśara observes in the opening kända of his treatise that he is truly a religious man who follows the prescriptions of āchara ( Chaturņāmapi varņānām acharo Dharmapalakah). Āchārakāņda, the first part of the Samhitā, discusses the basic duties of all the four varņas, their domestic and socio-religious rites and ceremonies and also norms of their social relationship, but in a spirit of accomodation with the changing character of the age. Madhavacharyya, a scholar of deep erudition, possessing wide experience of men and matters, felt the need of explaining the inner significance of the social regulations in order to standardise life against the background of some fixed values.
Parasara Smrti with its liberal approach to social problems became Mādhava's medium. He analysed critically the prescriptions outlined in the text and in addition to the
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