Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.114

c7.114

This specialisation certainly is not merely of a recent date, but is the natural result of the widening of the sphere of learning which took place at an early date and rendered it impossible, in spite of the long period devoted to the study of the Veda, to master it by committing it to memory². That the study of the sacred law, which specially interests us here, had already become a specialised subject before the time of the Dharmasūtras of Vas. and Baudh. is proved by these works themselves, for they mention also the Dharma-pāṭhaka³ along with those who are acquainted with the four Vedas or the Vedāṅgas, or with Mīmāṃsā, as member of an assembly of authorities (pariṣad), by which term clearly a Brahman is meant who has studied the several Dharmasūtras of the different schools, because the Dharmasūtra of a particular school, as part of the Kalpa, is already included among the Vedāṅgas⁴. A still further specialisation may be found in Vi. 83, 6 ff. where among the Paṅkti-pāvanas, those who would sanctify an assembly, one who has studied only a particular Dharmaśāstra is mentioned along with those, who have studied only one Vedāṅga or the Purāṇas, the epics or grammar. Also the fact that the law-books of the different schools, in the opinion of the commentators and to some extent also in the opinion of the authors themselves, were intended to supplement each other, indicates the early advent of specialists and schools of Dharma, clearly to be traced from the Dharmajña, Dharmavid or Dharmapravaktṛ and Pariṣad of the Smṛtis, from the Dharmaśāstrin of Bāṇa's Harṣacarita¹ and from the Dharmanibandhakāras and Ṭīkākāras of the mediaeval age—often very eminent persons, to the court Pandits and Shastris formerly attached to English law-courts and to the popular courts of arbitration (pañc) of the present day. That the law-books had received general recognition about 700 A.D., is proved by the statement by Kumārila to the effect that they were indeed evolved and continued within particular Vedic schools, but at his time they were also generally recognised².