Hindu Law and Custom (Recht und Sitte) c7.95

c7.95

The unpublished Bṛhaspati³ in prose in the manuscript collection of the R. As. Soc. in London, has nothing to do with the renowned teacher of the same name of whom so many metrical texts on law proper are quoted, but rather seems to be a religious work of a new sect. From certain aspects the most interesting of all these works is the Smṛti of Śaṅkha (Bṛhat or Vṛddha-Ś.)¹ in 18 Adhy., two of which 11 and 12, are written partly in prose and the rest, however, are throughout written in verse. The multifarious contents of this work deal with Varṇa and Āśramadharma, baths, ablutions, prayers, the holiness of the Gāyatrī, offering of water to the manes, Śrāddha, purification and penances. I find nearly 30 Ślokas quoted from Adhy. 4, 8, 9, 11, 16 and 17 alone in Mit, (on Y. 3, 30, 260, 264, 290, 293, 309), Madh. (1, 236, 238, 250, 274, 284) and in Jīmūtavāhana’s Dāyabhāga (p. 212), so that the authenticity of this Smṛti is sufficiently warranted for. Of course many other quotations, particularly the prose ones, are not found in it; yet the verse about parivitti (17, 43) seems to agree with a prose rule on this subject quoted in Mit. on Y. 3, 265. Thus this work represents, as Bühler has aptly remarked, a stage of transition from the Dharmasūtras to the metrical Smṛtis.