History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s9.4

v1.c6.s9.4

The Vas. Dh. S. resembles in several respects the other dharma-sūtras described above. It contains almost the same subjects and is similarly composed in prose interspersed with verses. The Vas. Dh. S. is in style like the Gautamadharmasūtra and has many sūtras identical with or closely resembling those of the latter. Vide. p. 18 above. It has also several sūtras closely corresponding with the sūtras of Baudhāyana. Grave doubts have been entertained about the authenticity of the whole of the text of the Vas. Dh. S. as the mss. contain varying numbers of chapters from 6 to 30, and as the text is hopelessly corrupt in several places (e. g. vide note 108 below). The Vas. Dh. S. contains many verses which bear the impress of a comparatively late age. Chapters 25-28 are entirely in verse, while there are other chapters (like III. 2-12, VI. 1-13, XI. 20-42) which contain many verses interposed between prose passages. In this respect Vasiṣṭha's work is on a par with Baudhāyana’s, in the fourth praśna of which there are chapters entirely consisting of verses. It has therefore been argued that the text of Vasiṣṭha was tampered with freely, particularly as regards the chapters at the end. But as shown below it will have to be admitted that the interpolations, whatever they may be, were made at a very early period. The Mitākṣarā quotes Vas. by name about 80 times and the quotations are taken from almost every chapter from the first to the last. For example, Mit. quotes Vas. 27. 1 on Yāj. III. 311, Vas. 27. 21 on Yāj. III. 324, Vas. 28. 7 on Yāj. III. 298, Vas. 28. 18, 19 and 22 on Yāj. III. 310. Even Medhātithi quotes Vasiṣṭha over twenty times. The quotations are mostly taken from the first chapter to the 21st. Only one quotation from the last few chapters (viz. 27. 16) has been found in Medhātithi (on Manu XI. 211) and that too is not quoted as Vasiṣṭha’s, but is ascribed to ‘others.’ Viśvarūpa, who flourished about the first quarter of the 9th century quotes Vas. about thirty times in his commentary on the *ācāra* and *vyavahāra* sections of Yāj. These quotations hardly differ in any respect from the text of Dr. Führer’s edition and are scattered over almost all chapters from the 1st to the 17th, six quotations being taken from chapters 3 and 17 each. In the prāyaścitta section Viśvarūpa quotes Vas. even more frequently. Besides several sūtras from the 1st, 4th, 10th and 11th chapters, he quotes here no less than 22 sūtras of the 20th chap. and 9 of the 21st. Moreover sūtras 37 and 39 of the 23rd chap. are quoted (on Yāj. III 281-282). What is more remarkable is that two verses (2-3) of the 28th chapter are ascribed to Vasiṣṭha and explained in detail (on Yāj. III. 256), while Vas. 28. 4 is quoted without the author’s name. These facts make it certain that the Vas. Dh. S. contained in Viśvarūpa’s day all the chapters from the first to the 23rd and also the 28th. Śaṅkara in his bhāṣya in Bṛ. Upaniṣad (III. 5. 1) quotes Vas. X. 4 and on Bṛ. Up. IV. 5. 15 he quotes Vas. VII. 3. The Vas. Dh. S. quotes numerous verses preceded by the words ‘athāpyudāharanti’, which is the case with Baudhāyana also. Several verses occur without these words being prefixed, but most of them seem to be quotations (e. g. Vas. II. 3 which combines Manu. II-169 and 170, IV. 6 which is Manu 5. 41, VI. 6 and 8 which are Manu IV. 157 and 158). Some of these verses introduced with the words ‘athāpi’ &c. as well as some of those not so introduced are in the regular classical Upajāti, Upendravajrā or Indravjrā (vide. I. 38, X. 20 for verses with *athāpi* &c.