History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c11.4

v2.c11.4

A few words must be said about the extensive quotations from Sanskrit works and the references to modern Indian Legislation and case-law. For those who cannot read English (most *paṇḍits* and *śāstrīs* do not) the quotations will be of great help in understanding at least the trend of the arguments. Besides Indian scholars are as a class poor and cannot afford to purchase numerous books. Nor are there many good libraries in India where all works of reference can be had. For all these reasons thousands of quotations have been cited in the footnotes. The quotations are mostly drawn from published works and references to mss. are few and far between. I hope that the numerous quotations will not intrude themselves on the attention of those who want to read only the English portion of the work. Legislative enactments and case-law have been referred to for showing that many regulations of dharmaśāstra are still very much alive, that they govern the every-day life of Hindus and permeate all classes of Hindu society in spite of the fact that a considerable part of dharmaśāstra has become obsolete. Similar remarks apply to the numerous references to inscriptions on stone and copper. These latter serve to prove that rules laid down in the dharmaśāstra were throughout two thousand years observed by the people and enforced by kings and that such rules were not mere precepts composed by dreamers or scholastic pedants.