The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c35.s5: Chapters IX—XII

The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c35.s5

Language: English

Chapters IX—XII

v1.c35.s5.1

THE PERIOD OF THE SŪTRAS, EPICS, AND LAW-BOOKS; FAMILY LIFE AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS AS THEY APPEAR IN THE SŪTRAS; THE PRINCES AND PEOPLES OF THE EPIC POEMS; THE GROWTH OF LAW AND LEGAL INSTITUTIONS

Āçvalāyana Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. A. F. Stenzler. Leipzig, 1864. Çāṅkhāyana Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. Hermann Oldenberg in Ind. Stud. xv, pp. 13 f. Pāraskara Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. A. F. Stenzler. Leipzig, 1876. Āpastambīya Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. M. Winternitz. Vienna, 1887. The Mantrapāṭha (of the Āpastambins). Ed. M. Winternitz. Oxford, 1897. Gobhila Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. F. Knauer. Dorpat, 1884. Hiraṇyakeçi Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. J. Kirste. Vienna, 1889. Mānava Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. F. Knauer. St Petersburg, 1897. Khādira Gṛihya Sūtra. Ed. with trans. by Oldenberg in S.B.E. xxix. Kauçika Sūtra. Ed. M. Bloomfield. New Haven, 1890. Gautama Dharma Çāstra (Sūtra). Ed. Stenzler. London, 1876. Āpastambīya Dharma Sūtra. Ed. G. Bühler. Bombay, 1868 and 1872 (two parts). Baudhāyana Dharma Çāstra. Ed. E. Hultzsch. Leipzig, 1884. Vāsishṭha Dharma Sūtra. Ed. A. Führer. Bombay, 1883. Mānava Dharma Çāstra. Ed. N. N. Mandlik with commentaries, Bombay, 1886; J. Jolly, London, 1887. Earlier editions: Calcutta, 1813; London, 1825; Paris, 1830. Vaishṇava Dharma Çāstra. Ed. Jolly. Calcutta, 1881. Yājñavalkya Dharma Çāstra. Ed. Stenzler. Berlin, 1849. (Mitāksharā. Bombay, 1909). Nārada Smṛiti. Ed. Jolly. Calcutta, 1885. The Dharma Çāstra Saṅgraha. Ed. Jivananda Vidyasagara. Calcutta, 1876. [Contains the texts attributed to Atri, Vishṇu, Hārīta, Yājñavalkya, Ushaṇas, Aṅgiras, Yama, Āpastamba, Saṃvarta, Kātyāyana, Bṛihaspati, Parāçara, Vyāsa, Çan̄kha, Likhita, Daksha, Çātātapa, Vasishṭha, Gautama, and 'Vṛiddha Gautama.']

v1.c35.s5.4

The text of the epics has come down in different recensions represented more or less accurately by different editions. The Mahābhārata as published in the Calcutta edition (1834–9) contains the Harivaṃça, and differs slightly from the Bombay edition (1888), which omits the Harivaṃça. The text of the poem according to South Indian tradition has been published in Bombay (1906–10): it differs materially from the northern recension. The Rāmāyaṇa (Bengal text, without the last book) was published by G. Gorresio (Paris, 1843–50). Another edition containing the complete text appeared in Bombay (1895), and a third text, but practically identical with that of Bombay though 'according to the southern readings,' was published in 1905.

v1.c35.s5.5

2. TRANSLATIONS.

v1.c35.s5.6

The chief Gṛihya Sūtras, those of Āçvalāyana, Çāṅkhāyana, Pāraskara, Khādira, Gobhila, Hiraṇyakeçin, and Āpastamba, have been translated by Oldenberg in S.B.E. xxix and xxx. In conjunction with the texts mentioned above have appeared German translations of Āçvalāyana by Stenzler (1865); of Çāṅkhāyana by Oldenberg (Ind. Stud. xv); of Gobhila by Knauer (1887); and of Pāraskara by Stenzler (1878).

v1.c35.s5.7

The S.B.E., vols. ii and xiv, contain translations by Bühler of the Dharma Sūtras of Āpastamba, Gautama, Vasishṭha, and Baudhāyana. The Mānava Dharma Çāstra, originally translated by Sir William Jones, appeared in a revised translation by Bühler in S.B.E. xxv, and by A. C. Burnell and E. W. Hopkins (London, 1884). The Vishṇu Smṛiti is translated by Jolly in S.B.E. vii; the Nãrada Smṛiti with the fragments of Bṛihaspati, ibid. xxxiii. The text of the 'shorter Nārada' is separately translated by Jolly (London, 1876). A German translation of the Yājñavalkya Dharma Çāstra appeared with the text (1849).

v1.c35.s5.8

Translations of the epic poems: The Mahābhārata in the northern recension has been translated into English by various pandits under the nominal editorship of Pratapa Chandra Ray (Roy) in Calcutta (1883–96); also by M. N. Dutt (Calcutta, 1896); and an abridged translation by R. C. Dutt (London, 1899). The Rāmāyaṇa, text and Italian translation by Gaspare Gorresio (1843–67); abridged translation by R. T. H. Griffith (Benares, 1895).

v1.c35.s5.9

3. GENERAL SURVEYS.

v1.c35.s5.10

The most important works bearing on the period represented by the Sūtras, Çāstras, and Epics are as follows:

v1.c35.s5.11

For a general survey of the subject: R. C. Dutt, History of civilization in Ancient India (revised edn. London, 1893); Mrs Manning, Ancient and mediaeval India (London, 1869); J. W. M'Crindle, Ancient India as described by Megasthenes and Arrian (Bombay, 1877); idem, by Ktesias (1882); idem, by Ptolemy (1885); Antiquities of India by L. D. Barnett (London, 1913); Ancient India by E. J. Rapson (Cambridge, 1914); Colebrooke's Essays (Life and Essays of H. T. Colebrooke, new edn. by E. B. Cowell, London, 1873) contain papers on Hindu Courts of Justice and Preface to the Digest, which are still valuable. West and Bühler's Digest of Hindu Law (Bombay, 1867–9) contains many extracts from later law-books. The best general review of Hindu law (Sūtras and Çāstras) is found in Julius Jolly's Recht und Sitte (1896). For the religious life of this epoch compare M. Monier-Williams, Religious Thought and Life in India (4th edn. London, 1891) and Indian Wisdom (1893). J. Muir's Original Sanskrit Texts (London, 1868–84) give copious extracts from the religious chapters of the epics.

v1.c35.s5.12

4. SPECIAL STUDIES.

v1.c35.s5.13

Special studies are those of W. Caland on burial practices, Die altindischen Toten- und Bestattungsgebräuche (Amsterdam, 1896); of the same writer on Altindische Zauberei (Amsterdam, 1908); on the marriage-customs, E. Hass in Ind. Stud. v, pp. 267 f. [containing part of the Kauçika Sūtra]; The Hindu law of marriage and Strīdhana (woman's property) by G. Banerjee (Tagore Lectures revised, Calcutta, 1896); see also the references given above in chap. x, p. 233, n. 1; on the ordeals, Die Gottesurtheile der Inder by E. Schlagintweit (Munich, 1866); Alter u. Herkunft des german. Gottesurtheils by A. Kaegi (1887).

v1.c35.s5.14

5. THE EPICS.

v1.c35.s5.15

For the epic compare in general A. Holtzmann, Das Mahābhārata (Kiel, 1892–5); J. Dahlmann, Das Mahābhārata als Epos u. Rechtsbuch (Berlin, 1895); H. Jacobi, Mahābhārata, Inhaltsangabe (Bonn, 1903); E. W. Hopkins, The Great Epic of India; and India Old and New (New York, 1901). Special studies: Bühler and Kirste, Contributions to the history of the Mahābhārata (Sitz. Wien, 1892) and Die indischen Inschriften u. das Alter der ind. Kunstpoesie (ibid. 1890). Apart from the Bhagavadgītā, which has its own literature, may be mentioned *inter alia* the collection of philosophical texts of the epic by Paul Deussen and Otto Strauss, Vier philosophische Texte des Mahābhāratam (Leipzig, 1906). A special study of the Social and Military Position of the Ruling Caste was published in the J.A.O.S., 1888, by the writer.

v1.c35.s5.16

The best commentary on the Rāmāyaṇa is by H. Jacobi, Das Rāmāyaṇa (Bonn, 1893). For the synchronous character of part of the Vishṇu Purāṇa, Harivaṁça, and Bālakāṇḍa of the Rāmāyaṇa compare Lesný in Z.D.M.G. LXVII, pp. 497 f. On the original linguistic form of the epics see Winternitz, Gesch. d. ind. Lit. I, p. 436; Jacobi, Z.D.M.G. XLVIII, p. 407; and Rapson, J.R.A.S., 1904, pp. 435 f. Compare also Lüders on the Ṛishyaçriṅga story, G.G.N., 1897, pp. 87 f.