The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c23.11

v1.c23.11

Of Nārada, who belongs to the fifth century and seems to have been from Nepāl, it may be said that he is the first to give us a legal code unhampered by the mass of religious and moral teaching with which and out of which the earlier works on Dharma arose¹, a code which in its fine sub-divisions of the titles of law, as well as in its elaborate treatment otherwise of slaves, inheritance, witnesses, ordeals, etc., is the first in which law itself is the subject-matter. Nārada's evident posteriority to Manu and Yājñavalkya does not show that it was an independent work, rather that it was based on these prior works. In addition to these legal lights it is necessary to mention only Bṛihaspati, who, as he extols Manu as the first of law-givers, also proves himself to be a sort of commentator rather than an original writer. His work is in fact a brief for Manu, and proves that in his day (about 600 or 700 a.d.) Manu was recognised as the original and greatest law-giver. His citations from Manu also show that our text has not changed essentially since his day².