History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s18.39

v1.c6.s18.39

Bühler devotes considerable space to this question (S B E vol. 25. pp. LXVI-LXXIII). He arrives at the conclusion that the cosmological and philosophical portions in the first and 12th books, the philosophical disquisition in II. 89-100, the classifications of *pitaraḥ* in III. 193-201, the means of subsistence for Brāhmaṇa in IV. 1-24, verses 1-4 of the fifth book, the rules about mixed castes (X. 1-74) and the duties of castes that are repeated in X. 101-131 were put in when the work was versified from the Mānavadharma-sūtra. Though one may not agree with all the details of Bühler's examination and with his theory about the versification of the Mānavadharmasūtra, it may be admitted that most of the passages pointed out by him have rather the flavour of comparative modernism about them. My own position is that the original Manusmṛti in verse had certain additions made in order to bring it in a line with the change in the general attitude of people on several points such as those of flesh-eating, *niyoga* &c. But all these additions must have been made long before the 3rd A. D., as the quotations from Bṛhaspati and others show.