Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.179

c7.179

A comparison of the contents alone shows that Nār. is not older but decidedly later than M. and that the traditional relation between these two authors must therefore be reversed. It is possible that the tradition according to which Nār., the intermediary between gods and men, received a law-book from the first parent M. is as old as that which connects Bhr̥gu with M. in the same manner. The analogous statements however in the Purāṇas and in the Mah. about four successive revisions of the original work of M. mention Bhr̥gu, Nār., Brh. and Aṅgiras or Śaṃkara, Indra, Br̥haspati and Kāvya, as the four redactors. The order here is therefore different, for Bhr̥gu, Sumati’s father, here comes before Nār.