The History of Indian Literature c9.334

c9.334

³²⁷ In his *Hist. of Anc. Sansk. Lit.* (1859), Max Müller gave some account of the Dharma-Sútra of Ápastamba, which is extant under the title Sámayáchárika-Sútra. He also characterised three of the Dharma-Śástras printed at Calcutta (the Gautama, Vishṇu, and Vasishṭha) as being Dharma-Sútras of a similar kind; expressing himself generally to the effect (p. 134) that all the metrical Dharma-Śástras we possess are but "more modern texts of earlier Sútra-works or Kula-dharmas belonging originally to certain Vedic Charaṇas." (The only authority cited by him is Stenzler in *I. St.*, i. 232, who, however, in his turn, refers to my own earlier account, *ibid.* pp. 57, 69, 143). Johäntgen, in his tract, *Ueber das Gesetzbuch des Manu* (1863), adopted precisely the same view (see, e.g., p. 113). Bühler, finally, in the Introduction to the *Digest of Hindu Law*, edited by him, jointly with R. West (vol. i., 1867), furnished us for the first time with more specific information as to these Dharma-Sútras, which connect themselves with, and in part directly belong to, the Vedic Sútra stage. In the appendix to this work he likewise communicated various sections on the law of inheritance from the four Dharma-Sútras above mentioned, and that of Baudháyana. He also published separately,, in 1868, the entire Sútra of Apastamba, with extracts from Haradatta's commentary and an index of words (1871). This Sútra, in point of fact, forms (see above, notes 108 and 109) two *praśnas* of the Áp. Śrauta-Sútra; and a similar remark applies to the Sútra of Baudháyana. According to Bühler's exposition, to the five Sútras just named have to be added the small texts of this class, consisting of prose and verse intermingled, which are ascribed to Uśanas, Kaśyapa, and Budha; and, perhaps, also the Smṛitis of Háríta and Saṅkha. All the other existing Smṛitis, on the contrary, bear a more modern character, and are either (1) metrical redactions of ancient Dharma-Sútras, or fragments of such redactions (to these belong our Manu and Yájnavalkya, as well as the Smṛitis of Nárada, Paráśara, Bṛihaspati, Saṃvarta),—or (2) secondary redactions of metrical Dharma-Śástras,—or (3) metrical versions of the Gṛihya-Sútras,—or lastly, (4) forgeries of the Hindú sects.—The material in vol. i. of Bühler and West's work has been utilised critically, in its legal bearing, by Aurel Mayr, in his work, *Das indische Erbrecht* (Vienna, 1873); see on it *Lit. C. Bl.*, 1874, p. 340 ff.