Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.456

c7.456

§ 14. *The customary law and European treatment of Indian law.* The Smṛtis were written by Brahmans for Brahmans and they bring out the caste privileges claimed by them in the rudest manner. The Kṣatriyas too appear beside the Brahmans as a privileged class, but the bulk of the population, particularly the mass of the Śūdras, stand so low, that it is considered hardly worth the trouble to examine their customs and legal usages. Leaving the details about classes and castes to be dealt with in State-antiquities⁵ I content myself here only with this (cf. §1) that the authors of the Smṛtis themselves fully recognised the necessity of the existence