Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.177

c7.177

§ 7. Nārada. The Nāradasmṛti² attracted great attention already a hundred years ago on account of the passage in the author's introduction which describes the various recensions of M. and represents Nār. as a fragment of an older and more extensive recension of this work than our M. composed by Bhr̥gu. According to this passage referred to by Sir William Jones in the foreword to his Manu and after him frequently by others, the first parent M. is said to have composed a comprehensive work on law, philosophy etc. in 24 sections and 100,000 Ślokas. The Devarṣi Nār., who received it from M., seeing the feeble intellectual power of man, made a sketch in 12,000 Ślokas and Bhr̥gu's son Sumati further abridged it into 4,000 Ślokas. Only this sketch is now accessible to humanity, but the Nār.-Smr̥ti preserves the 9. chapter of the sketch prepared by Nār. from M., dealing with law proper. This datum is often taken into account for the history of our M. and conjointly with the quotations from a Vr̥ddha or Br̥hanmanu, it is regarded as a proof of the fact that only a later revision of the original work of M. has been preserved. Our M. should be regarded as still later, if the version of this introduction to Nār. found in the greater and perhaps the more ancient recension of his work is taken to be true; for this version throws in Mārkanḍeya between Nār. and Sumati as another redactor who is said to have made a sketch in 8,000 Ślokas.