A History of Sanskrit Literature c30.s4.9

c30.s4.9

The works of these authors, meritorious in their own way, never exhibit the highest qualities of legal interpretation. They were bound to follow authority, and they fail to evolve any independence of attitude to that authority, or to do more than exhibit very considerable ability in reconciling the irreconcilable, and establishing the legitimacy of a custom of their district by torturing ancient texts which obviously meant something else. How far their citations were from really old authorities it is impossible to say; that verses were freely forged when it was impossible to check the process may be guessed, especially as the epic ranked as a high authority and no one then, or now, could assert definitely what was or was not contained therein.