Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.57

c7.57

The Vaiṣṇava Dharmaśāstra or the Viṣṇusmṛti,¹ a very extensive work in 100 Adhy., is presented as a revelation from the god Viṣṇu in the introductory portion and the final chapter. Also in several other passages of this work he (Viṣṇu) holds conversation with the goddess of the earth. Yet we have here manifestly the remodelling of the work by a member of the Viṣṇuite sect of the Bhāgavatas. The main stock of our book which is also quoted under the name Viṣṇusūtra, thoroughly resembles the Dharmaśūtras in form and substance and in the metrical passages it agrees in many cases word for word with these works and with M. and other metrical Smṛtis as well. Still more important are the special relations of our Vi. with the Kāṭhakagṛhyasūtra and other works of the Kāṭhaka school, out of the Veda,--the Kāṭhaka,--of which school many of the Mantras cited by Vi., are taken while passages common with the Gṛhyasūtra of this school, which are often very extensive, are seen particularly in connection with the Śrāddha ritual, Vaiśvadeva sacrifice and the Vṛṣotsarga. As these rites are performed within every Vedic school only according to its special ritual, Vi. may directly be regarded as the Kāṭhaka Dharmasūtra which was alienated from its special school and became a generally recognised law book by the same process as is demonstrated by historical evidences in the cases of Gaut. and Vas. Even at the time of Govindarāja (12. century) a Sūtra work of the Katha school about Dharma seems to have been in existence, for the Smṛtimañjarī quotes a rule in prose of a Kathasūtrakṛt about the atonement for the murder of a Brahman, which, however, cannot be found in Vi¹.