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LAWS OF MANU.
shortness of the extracts, very difficult. But, considering all things, I feel inclined to assume that the author or authors of the Mahabharata knew only the Dharma-sūtra. The character of the four verses and a half, quoted verbally, as well as of the paraphrase in the Sakuntalopakhyana agrees well enough with this assumption, because the Mânava Dharma-satra, as we have seen, certainly did contain numerous Slokas. It is further corroborated by the fact that the Mahabharata does not differ in its arrangement, or rather in its want of an arrangement of the civil and criminal law, from the Dharma-sútras. Though the epic contains numerous verses on these topics, it nowhere shows an acquaintance with the eighteen titles of the law which are so characteristic of the secondary Smritis, the handbooks of the special law schools. On the other side it may be urged that the Mahâbhârata says nothing of Dharmasâtras, and that its general view of the origin of the sacred law coincides with that expressed in the later law-books. It holds that the moral and legal doctrines were revealed for the benefit of the human race, first by Brahman to various mythical Rishis, and by them to mankind. This objection may, however, be met by the not unreasonable assumption that at the time when the Mahabharata was composed, the real origin of the old Sutras had been forgotten, while the text had not yet been materially altered. What has been said above regarding the rise of the special law schools, and the facts known regarding the change in the tradition concerning the Satras of Gautama and Vasishtha, make the hypothesis of such a transitional period not at all improbable. Should, nevertheless, the. possibility of the existence of a metrical redaction of the Mânava-sūtra, preceding that ascribed to Bhrigu, be considered as not altogether excluded, it would at least be necessary to concede that it could not have contained the present arrangement of the Vyavahara portion under titles.
While there is thus no proof for the opinion that the modern portions of the Manu-smriti have been gradually added one to the other, or that the present text is one of
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