Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.291

c7.291

Next to M., Y. seems to have been most commented upon, and most important is the frequently published commentary of the mendicant (parivrājaka) Vijñāneśvara—the famous Mitākṣarā³, which became a standard work already at an early date in the Dekhan and also in Benares and a great part of Northern India; even in the English period, it has exercised a great influence on modern judicature through Colebrooke's translation of that portion of it which deals with the law of inheritance. Vijñāneśvara is called a Southern author in the Madanaratna. He himself controverts the opinions of the authors of the North and glorifies the King Vikramāditya of Kalyāṇa, who is undoubtedly identical with the ruler of Kalyāṇa in Haiderabad known from inscriptions of 1076-1127 A.D. and from the Vikramāṅkadevacarita edited by Bühler. The period of activity of our author therefore falls in the last quarter of the eleventh century and the first quarter of the twelfth century, and the fame of his work should be attributed more to the power and esteem of the mighty Cālukya princes than to any intrinsic merit of the Mit., which indeed is not a mere commentary, but contains a system of Dharma furnished with numerous quotations.