History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s89.1

v1.c6.s89.1

Rājā Ṭoḍaramalla, the celebrated finance minister of Akbar, compiled an extensive encyclopædia of civil and religious law, astronomy and medicine. The several parts of that encyclopædia dealing with *ācāra*, *dāna*, *vyavahāra*, *śrāddha*, *viveka*, *prāyaścitta*, *samaya* were called *saukhyas*. An account of some of the *saukhyas* that were available to me may be concisely given here. The Vyavahārasaukhya (D. C. ms. No. 366 of 1875-76) begins with an invocation of Śiva, speaks of the *pārasīka* emperor¹⁰²⁹ (Akbar) of Hind (India) and then deals with the several topics of judicial procedure such as the king's duty to look into disputes, the *sabhā*, judge, meaning of the word *vyavahāra*, enumeration of 18 *vyavahārapadas*, time and place of *vyavahāra*, the plaint, the reply, the agent of the parties (*pratinidhi*), *pratyākalita*, the superiority of one mode of proof over another, witnesses, documents, possession, inference, ordeals and oaths, grades of punishments and fines. The Vyavahārasaukhya does not dwell on the exposition of the several titles of law. Besides the smṛti writers, it principally relies on the Kalpataru, the Pārijāta, Bhavadeva, the Mitākṣarā, the Ratnākara, Harihara and Halāyudha. The several sections are styled *harṣas*.