A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s1.34

Language: English

c19.s1.34.1

In legal literature (*Dharmaśāstra*), the earliest work that calls for notice after the Sūtras mentioned above is the *Bālakrīḍā*, Viśvarūpa’s commentary on *Yājñavalkya-smṛti*. The author, who was also called Sureśvara, was a pupil of Śankara. Another writer of fairly early date was Bhāruci who commented on the *Viṣṇu Dharmasūtras* and *Manusmṛti*; the first work is lost and the second was only recently recovered in a fragmentary form. Perhaps the greatest name in this sphere is that of Vijñāneśvara who adorned the court of Chālukya Vikramāditya VI; his *Mitākṣarā*, a commentary on *Yājñavalkya*, is an important treatise on law based on many earlier writings and it has found acceptance in the whole of South India and large parts of the North. The work was commented on more than once by subsequent writers; Colebrooke, who translated into English the section on inheritance, gave it currency in British Indian courts. Another work ascribed to Vijñāneśvara is the *Aśauca-daśaka* or *Daśaślokī*, ten terse verses treating of pollution consequent on death. A pupil of this great author, Nārāyaṇa by name, compiled an independent digest on civil law called *Vyavahāraśiromaṇi* which has survived only in part. The Śilāhāra ruler of Konkan, Aparārka or Aparāditya I, already mentioned as a writer on Nyāya, wrote an extensive commentary on *Yājñavalkya* early in the twelfth century; even more than the *Mitākṣarā*, it is more an independent digest than a commentary hugging its text.

c19.s1.34.2

Varadarāja’s *Vyavahāranirṇaya*, for which various dates are assigned like A.D. 1297 and A.D. 1500, is valuable for its interpretation of juristic rules in the light of Mīmāmsā principles, and deserves particular notice among the legal digests of South India, as also the more extensive *Smṛticandrikā* of Devana Bhaṭṭa often cited by Hemādri. To the latter half of the thirteenth century may be assigned the famous Haradatta whose commentaries on the *Dharmasūtras* of Āpastamba and Gautama are models of their kind; he is cited by Viśveśvara (1375), author of the *Subodhinī* on the *Mitāksharā*. Hemādri, minister of the Yādava king Mahādeva (1260-71) and his successor, was the author of a cyclopaedic digest called *Caturvargacintāmaṇi* comprising five large sections on Vrata, Dāna, Tirtha, Moksha and Pariśesha. Two more sections on Prāyaścitta (expiation) and Vyavahāra (civil law) are supposed to have been compiled by him though they are not now extant. The published portion covers over 6,000 pages and forms perhaps the most extensive digest on the subjects it treats of. Part of the glory that was Vijayanagar was the work of Mādhava, the brother of Sāyaṇa, whose commentary on *Parāśarasmriti*, the *Parāśara Mādhavīya*, is a most erudite work which includes an independent treatise on Vyavahāra which was neglected in the text of Parāśara.

c19.s1.34.3

And Sāyaṇa himself wrote a number of lesser manuals called *Sudhānidhis* treating of Prāyaścitta (expiation), Yajñatantra (Vedic ritual), Purushārtha (the aims of human endeavour) and so on. The two brothers wrote in the first half of the fourteenth century. Dalapati's extensive work in twelve sections, *Nrisimhaprasāda*, deals with all phases of religious and civil law; Dalapati (1490-1533) was a highly placed Hindu officer in the Nizam Shahi court of Ahmadnagar. Pratāparudra Gajapati of Orissa composed the *Sarasvati-vilāsa* with the avowed intention of reconciling the apparent discrepancies between the views of Vijñāneśvara, Aparārka, Bhāruci and other authors who preceded him. Only the Vyavahāra section of this work has been found. The royal authorship of the work has, however, been doubted as it is counted among the writings of the polyhistor Lolla Lakshmīdhara. The *Smritiratnākara* of Hārita Venkatācārya (Toḷappar) (1450-1500), a native of the Chingleput district which was so prolific of Vaishnava scholars, is accepted to this day as an authoritative exposition of religious law by the Vaishnavas of the South. Vaidyanātha Dikshita's *Smritimuktāphala*, written probably early in the seventeenth century, holds a similar position among the Smārtas. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries under the Nāyak rulers of South India many other works were written in the field of Dharmaśāstra as in other branches of literature.