History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s21.20

v1.c6.s21.20

Yājñavalkya's work is more systematic than that of Manu. He divides the work into three sections and relegates all topics to their proper positions and avoids repetition. He treats of almost all subjects that we find in Manu, but his treatment is always concise and he makes very great and successful efforts at brevity. The result is that for the 2700 verses of Manu, he requires only a little over a thousand. He often compresses two verses of Manu into one, *e. g.* Manu II. 243, 247-248 are equal to Yāj. I. 49, Manu III, 46-48 and 50 are concisely put in one verse by Yāj. (I. 79); vide also Manu IV. 7-8 and Yāj. I. 128 (contain almost same words also), Manu IV. 84-85 and Yāj. I. 141. In a few cases Manu and Yāj. convey the same meaning in one verse without compression, *e. g.* Manu III. 70 and Yāj. I. 102, Manu III. 119 and Yāj. I. 110, Manu VII. 171 and Yāj. I. 348, Manu VII. 205 and Yāj. I. 349. The correspondence of Yājñavalkya's words with the text of Manu is in most cases very close, so much so that one cannot help feeling that Yāj. had the Manusmṛti before him and purposely made an attempt to abridge the somewhat loose expressions of Manu. The passages set forth above as examples of compression will also serve as illustrations of this fact. The word Kāya (from Ka) is used by both in the sense of 'prājāpatya form of marriage' (Manu III. 38 and Yāj. I. 60); vide also Manu II. 109 and Yāj. I. 28, Manu III. 43-44 and Yāj. I. 62, Manu V. 26-27 and Yāj. I. 178-179, Manu VII. 56 and Yāj. I. 312 for further close agreement in phraseology. Yāj. adds some subjects which have either no counterpart in our Manu or which are only noticed in passing by Manu. The Manusmṛti contains nothing corresponding to the Vināyakaśānti and Grahaśānti of Yāj. (I. 271-308). Yāj. gives a detailed treatment of five kinds of ordeals (II. 95-113), while Manu makes only a cursory reference to the ordeals of fire and water (VIII. 114). Yāj.