History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s12.1

v1.c6.s12.1

From the Tantravārtika we learn (note 55 above) that the Dharmasūtra of Śaṅkha-Likhita was specially studied by the Vājasaneyins (the followers of the white Yajurveda). The Tantravārtika also quotes a few words from that dharmasūtra which constitute an Anuṣṭubh *pāda*.¹³² The Mahābhārata (Śānti. chap. 23) contains the story of the two brothers Śaṅkha and Likhita. In the Śāntiparva (130. 29 and 132. 15-16) the word Śaṅkha-Likhita seems to be used in a double sense, Śaṅkha also meaning the forehead. Yājñavalkya (1. 5) mentions Śaṅkha-Likhita among the writers on dharmaśātra. The Parāśarasmṛti says (1. 24) that in the four ages of Kṛta, Tretā, Dvāpara and Kali, the ordinances of Manu, Gautama, Śaṅkha-Likhita and Parāśara are respectively of paramount authority in matters of *dharma*. Viśvarūpa (on Yāj. III. 248) quotes a verse from an ancient author which says that Śaṅkha and Likhita pondered deeply over the *dharma* promulgated to the sages by Manu and drew upon the Veda¹³³ also. Commentators and *nibandhakāras* from Viśvarūpa downwards profusely quote Śaṅkha-Likhita. A considerable portion of these quotations is in prose. Hence it is quite clear that the dharmasūtra of Śaṅkha-Likhita is an ancient one, that it was largely if not entirely in prose and that it was once easily accessible though it has not yet been discovered. In the Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (vol. VII–VIII) I made an attempt at a reconstruction of Śaṅkha-Likhita.