Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.371

c7.371

Two families distinguished for learning, still living in Benares, may be traced back upto the 16. century¹. Rāmeśvara (with whom the epithet Bhaṭṭa, common to whole family, begins) was a son of Govinda who came from South India and settled down in Benares about the beginning of the 16. century. His son Nārāyaṇa wrote various works on religious law and philosophy, some of which are still in existence with the dates 1535-36, 1556-57 and 1568-69. His Prayogaratna, published in Bombay in the year 1861 is still regarded in Western India as an authoritative work in matters of household usages. Śaṃkara, the son of Nārāyaṇa is particularly known as the author of the Dharmadvaitanirṇaya which should thus be dated somewhere towards the end of the 16. century; it is a disquisition on the problems of law; the portion of this work dealing with adoption has been edited and translated by Mandlik¹. Rāmakṛṣṇa, another son of Nārāyaṇa, was also active as an author in the field of of Dharmaśāstra².