Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.139

c7.139

Coming back from these later elements in our M. to the original parts of this work as they can be traced out by a comparison of the same with the Dharmasūtras, we are confronted with the further question whether a particular work of this kind may be said to have been the M. and Mānavācārya. source of our M. or not. Here the well-known hypotheses comes up, which makes the mythical first parent Manu, who in our M. (1, 1-4, 118 f. etc.) is named as the author of the work, identical with the Mānavācārya or Manvācārya the traditional author of the Mānava Gṛhyasūtra¹ and according to which the Mānava Dharmaśāstra as the law-book of the Mānavas, was originated out of the lost Mānav Dharmasūtra, the supposed Dharmasūtra of the Vedic school of the Mānava-Maitrāyaṇīyas. These hypotheses which were first raised at a time when this school was known only by its name, have received little support from the discovery of several of its chief works. Neither the Gṛhyasūtra along with the Pariśiṣṭa nor the Saṃhitā and the Śrautasūtra of the Maitrāyaṇīyas agree accurately with M.