History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s25.3

v1.c6.s25.3

Kātyāyana appears to have taken Nārada and Bṛhaspati as his models in the order and treatment of the subjects to be dealt with in vyavahāra. He closely follows both the writers in terminology and technique. On several points he presupposes Nārada and expounds and elucidates the latter's dicta. For example, Nārada (Intro. chap. I. 10-11) lays down that vyavahāra has four pādas, each later one prevailing over the preceding, viz. dharma, vyavahāra, caritra, rājaśāsana (note 361) and then Nārada very briefly in one verse explains these four terms. Kātyāyana on the other hand devotes at least nine verses to the elucidation of the rule as to each succeeding one prevailing over its predecessor.³⁹⁴ Nārada contains very little on the topic of strīdhana (dāyabhāga chap. verses 8-9). He merely enumerates the six kinds of strīdhana and then lays down the rule of succession. Kātyāyana's treatment of strīdhana has attained classical rank. It appears that he was probably the first to carefully define the several kinds of strīdhana (such as adhyagni, adhyāvāhanika, prītidatta, śulka, anvādheya, saudāyika), to lay down woman's power of disposal over the several varieties of strīdhana and to prescribe lines of devolution as to strīdhana. The verses on this topic occurring in the nibandhas number about thirty.