History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s45.12

v1.c6.s45.12

The foregoing establishes that Asahāya composed bhāṣyas on the Gautamadharmasūtra, on the Manusmṛti and on Nārada. When the Smṛticandrikā⁵¹⁴ refers to a bhāṣya of Nārada it is most probably referring to Asahāya. In the Mit. (on Yāj. II. 124) the opinion of Asahāya and Medhātithi on the right of an unmarried sister to receive one-fourth as provision for her marriage from her brothers is preferred to that of Bhāruci.⁵¹⁵ This seems to be rather a reference to Asahāya's commentary on Manu (9. 118) which contains a rule similar to Yāj. (II. 124), while Nārada contains no such rule about a fourth share. It is a strange irony of fate that the very name of Asahāya who is profusely quoted by the Sarasvatīvilāsa in the first half of the sixteenth century was forgotten by later writers, so much so that the Bālambhaṭṭī understands the word Asahāya (in note 515 above) as an attribute of Medhātithi in the sense of 'peerless'.