A History of Sanskrit Literature c30.s3.19

c30.s3.19

Other Smṛtis exist in indefinite numbers⁵—one list mentions 152; in many cases we have *Laghu*, *Bṛhat*, or *Vṛddha* forms of the same text, or the same name is given to quite different texts. A Parāçara appears as an authority in Yājñavalkya and is cited by Medhātithi, but the *Parāçara Smṛti*⁶ on which Mādhava wrote in the fourteenth century an elaborate comment, adding a chapter on law to those on custom and penance of the original, is doubtless later than either of these authors. A *Bṛhat* version of this text is five times as long. We have various texts ascribed to Atri, Uçanas, Āpastamba, Dakṣa, Çañkha, Likhita, Saṁvarta, and so on, but more interesting than these which hardly touch on law proper are certain authors of whom we have but fragments; Pitāmaha¹ appears already in Bṛhaspati as an authority on ordeals; Kātyāyana and Vyāsa agree often with Nārada and Bṛhaspati, and juristic verses by Hārīta are found which are not in the Dharmaçāstra preserved. The number of Smṛtis can be augmented from the epic and the Purāṇas which contain long sections which might as well be Smṛtis; thus in a manuscript of the epic is found a *Bṛhad Gautamasmṛti* which is quite different from the old text of Gautama.