History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s23.8
History of Dharmaśāstra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s23.8
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The printed Nārada contains 1028 verses (including 61 on theft in the appendix). About seven hundred of these verses occur in various *nibandhas* as quotations. Up to the 21st verse of the section ‘abhyupetyāśuśrūṣā’ the commentary of Asahāya furnishes a valuable check for the authenticity of the text. For the remaining portion, there are important data as to its authenticity, sequence and readings. Viśvarūpa, who belongs to the first half of the 9th century, quotes about fifty verses of Nārada (generally by name). The text that he had before him was essentially the same as that of the printed edition, except in a very few cases. Out of the seven verses of Nārada on ‘samayasyānapākarma’ Viśvarūpa quotes five (on Yāj. II. 190 and 196) and expressly states that Nārada wound up his chapter on that topic with the verse ‘doṣavat karaṇaṁ &c’. as the printed text does. On Yāj. II. 226 Viśvarūpa distinctly says that the verse ‘yameva hyativarteran’ &c. is followed immediately by ‘malā hyete manuṣyeṣu’. This is the case with the printed text also (dyūtasamāhvaya verses 13-14). On Yāj. III. 252 Viśvarūpa quotes a verse of Nārada about the three kinds of wealth, śukla, śabala and kṛṣṇa, which does not occur in that form in Nārada, though the latter contains similar dicta.³⁵⁵ Viśvarūpa contains no quotation from Nārada on the topics of ācāra or prāyaścitta. The same is the case with Medhātithi and the Mitākṣarā.
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Medhātithi somewhat inaccurately summarises the the introductory words (in prose) of Nārada (vide note 269 above). Medhātithi frequently quotes Nārada particularly from the sections on ṛṇādāna (vide on Manu 8. 47, 155, 149) and dāyabhāga (on Manu 8, 28, 29, and 207, 209, and 143). On Manu 8, 349 he quotes Nārada on partnership (verse 10), on 8. 216 he quotes Nārada (vetanasya-anapākarma verse 5). In some cases Medhātithi cites Nārada's verses without naming him e. g. on Manu 9. 76 he quotes the well-known verse ‘naṣṭe mṛte pravrajite &c.’ (Nārada on marital relation, verse 97) as ‘smṛtyantara’. It was shown above (p. 172) that the vyavahāra section of the Agnipurāṇa dates from about 900 A. D. Chap. 253 of the Agnipurāṇa contains thirty verses of the extant Nāradasmṛti, viz. Agni 253. 1b--9a= Nārada (vyavahāra-mātṛkā chap. I. 8–15); Agni 253. 9b--12=Nārada (vyavahāra-mātṛkā chap. I. 26-29a); Agni 253. 13--30 are the verses defining the eighteen titles from ṛṇādāna to prakīrṇaka contained in Nārada and occur in the same order in both. The readings preserved in the Agnipurāṇa deserve some discussion. Agni (253. 3-4) reads ‘dharmaś ca vyavahāraś ca ... uttaraḥ pūrvasādhakaḥ’, while Nārada has ‘pūrvabādhakaḥ’. Agni reads ‘caritraṁ saṁgrahe pūṁsāṁ rājājñāyāṁ tu sādhanam’ (253. 5), while Nārada has ‘caritraṁ pustakaraṇe rājājñāyāṁ tu śāsanam’. Agni (253. 15) reads ‘dattvā dravyaṁ ca samyag-yaḥ’, while Nārada (dattāpradānika 1) reads ‘dattvā dravyamasamyag-yaḥ’. The Agni (253.
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11) reads ‘Śaṅkā sadbhistu saṁsargāt tattvaṁ ṣoḍhābhidarśanāt’ and avoids the rare word ‘hoḍhābhi-’ in Nārada ‘Śaṅkāsatāṁ tu saṁsargāt tattvaṁ hoḍhābhidarśanāt’ (Vyavahāramātṛkā I. 27). For Nārada's ‘akṣabradhnaśalākādyair &c.’ (dyūtasamāhvaya I) Agni reads ‘Akṣavajra &c.’ (253. 29). The Mit. (on Yāj. II. 199) and Vīr. (p. 718) follow printed Nārada in the last case and also in the other cases. In the Smṛti-candrikā, Hemādri, Parāśaramādhavīya and other later *nibandhas* numerous verses of Nārada are quoted on topics of ācāra, śrāddha, prāyaścitta. For example, Hemādri (caturvarga vol. III. part 2, pp. 159, 183, 185, 223, 235) quotes several verses of Nārada on Ekādaśī and a verse of Nārada about the astrological *yoga* called padmaka. The Smṛticandrikā (I. pp. 198-199) quotes 26 verses on the worship of Nārāyaṇa, the last of which is the well known verse ‘dhyeyaḥ sadā savitṛmaṇḍala-madhyavartī &c.’ and the same work (on śrāddha p. 354) quotes a verse of Nārada in which Sunday and Saṁkrānti are mentioned. The question arises whether these quotations of Nārada on ācāra and prāyaścitta and allied topics are the work of the same Nārada that wrote on Vyavahāra.
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From the fact that early writers like Viśvarūpa, Medhātithi and Vijñāneśvara do not contain a single quotation of Nārada on topics other than that of vyavahāra, it appears probable that the quotations on ācāra and prāyaścitta belong to a later date than the Nāradasmṛti on vyavahāra and either did not exist in the days of Viśvarūpa and Medhātithi or had not attained canonical authority in those days. There is in the India Office Library a ms. of Nāradasmṛti in three chapters and 322 verses dealing exclusively with ācāra and prāyaścitta (vide Jolly's Introduction p. 5 to edition of text).