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INTRODUCTION.
xvii
and Baudhayana as well, not to mention Hiranyakesin's Dharma-sûtra, which, according to Dr. Bühler, is nearly identical with the Dharma-sútra of Åpastamba. Two facts may be established at once by glancing at these analogies, viz. the close agreement of this work with the other Satra works in point of form, and with all the above-mentioned works in point of contents. As regards the first point, the Satras or prose rules of which the bulk of the Vishnu-sútra is composed, show throughout that characteristic laconism of the Sūtra style, which renders it impossible in many cases to make out the real meaning of a Sútra without the help of a Commentary; and in the choice of terms they agree as closely as possible with the other ancient law-books, and in some cases with the Grihya -sätras as well. Numerous verses, generally in the Sloka metre, and occasionally designed as 'Gathâs,' are added at the end of most chapters, and interspersed between the Satras in some; but in this particular also the Vishnu-sútra agrees with at least one other Dharma-sätra, the Vâsishtha-smriti, and it contains in its law part, like the latter work, a number of verses in the ancient Trishtubh metre! Four of these Trishtubhs are found in the Vasishtha-smriti, and three in Yaska's Nirukta as well, and the majority of the Slokas has been traced in the former work and the other above-mentioned law-books, and in other Smritis. In point of contents the great majority both of the metrical and prose rules of the Vishnu-sútra agrees with one, or some, or all of the works named above. The Grihya-sutras, excepting the Kathaka Grihya-sūtra, naturally offer a far smaller number of analogies with it than the Smritis, still they exhibit several rules, in the Snâtaka-dharmas and otherwise, that have not been traced in any other Smriti except the work here translated. Among the Smritis again, each single one may be seen
work, the first complete and reliable edition of the Vâsishtha-smriti, in the footnotes to my translation, but for the fact that it did not come into my hands till the former had gone to the press. For Baudhayana I have consulted a Munich MS. containing the text only of his Satras (cod. Haug 163).
1 XIX, 23, 24; XXIII, 61; XXIX, 9, 10; XXX, 47 (see Nirukta II, 4; Vâsishtha II, 8-10); LVI, 27 (see Vâsishtha XXVIII, 15); LIX, 30; LXXII, 7; LXXXVI, 16.
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