History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s22.18

v1.c6.s22.18

The Mit., Aparārka, Smṛticandrikā, Hemādri and other later works quote Parāśara very frequently. Most of these are found in the extant Parāśarasmṛti. For example, vide pp. 1169, 1177, 1180, 1191 &c. of Aparārka, all of which are traced in Parāśara pp. 42, 43, 42 and 16 respectively. Viśvarūpa quotes Parāśara several times and these quotations can be verified ; e. g. on Yāj. III. 16 the verse "anātham" ascribed to Parāśara is found in Parāśara chap. III p. 10; on Yāj. III. 257 ten verses are cited by Viśvarūpa from Parāśara which occur in Parāśara with considerable variations (chap. VII. pp. 20-21); on Yāj. III. 262 the verse "gavām bandhana" is cited from Parāśara, which is the first verse of the 8th chapter. Therefore it is quite clear that in the first half of the 9th century the Parāśarasmṛti that we have now was considered to be authoritative and the work of an ancient sage. It seems to have known a work of Manu, as seen above. Therefore it must be assignad to some period between the first and the 5th century of our era. In the same direction points the fact that the Garuḍapurāṇa (chap. 107) seems to have known the introductory verses of Parāśara and as shown above (p. 191) combines passages of Parāśara in a summary of its teachings.³⁵⁰ The Viṣṇu-dharmottara which is frequently quoted by Aparārka and other later works cites verses that are borrowed from Parāśara. For example, chap. 75. 1 of the former is the same as a verse of Parāśara.³⁵¹