History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v5.c66.12

v5.c66.12

The third volume of the History of Dharmaśāstra was published in October 1946. In the brief preface to that volume I intimated that the remaining topics of Dharmaśāstra would be dealt with in one volume. But as I proceeded with the task I found that that was a miscalculation. To present in one volume all the topics that remained in the manner and on the scale that I had adopted in the first three volumes was found to be impossible. Besides, as my age advanced, I could not maintain the same speed and finish the whole history in a few years as I intimated I would do in the preface to the third volume. Therefore, I had to decide, however reluctantly, to spread the remaining work over two volumes. Owing to the scarcity of paper and paucity of skilled workers, this volume has been in the press for more than three years This volume deals with eight topics, viz Pātaka, Prāyaścitta, Karmavipāka, Antyeṣṭi, Āśauca, Śuddhi, Śrāddha and Tīrthayātrā. These subjects are of great interest to anthropologists. There was great temptation for me, when dealing with these topics, to indulge in dwelling upon similar beliefs, usages and rites described in such works as Frazer's 'Golden Bough.' For two reasons, however, I have rarely succumbed to this temptation. In the first place, there was the fear of increasing the bulk of the work which has already assumed enormous proportions. In the second place, dwelling on comparisons of ancient and medieval Indian usages and rites with similar usages and rites found elsewhere is liable to serious misunderstanding. Frazer's volumes are largely made up of materials concerning the beliefs, usages and rites of very primitive people. It appeared to me that readers of such comparisons might be led to think that people in ancient and medieval India were at a primitive stage of culture, while as a matter of fact they had a very high culture in most matters, although they retained certain beliefs and usages derived from remote antiquity. Many cultured societies retain some usages that belong to periods of antiquity. The queen in France was not to leave for a whole year the room in which the death of her consort was announced to her. Wretched old women deemed to be witches were prosecuted and sentenced to death in England up to the beginning of the eighteenth century, while Manu (IX. 290) more than two thousand years ago prescribed the mild punishment of a fine of two hundred *paṇas* for all incantations intended to destroy life, for magic rites and for raising ghosts and goblins. My main aim has throughout been to discover, collect, classify and interpret the facts of the various departments of Dharmaśāstra and my endeavour has been, as far as in me lies, to present the truth with detachment and intellectual integrity and without bias (except what might have been unconsciously engendered in my mind owing to my being born and brought up in a brāhmaṇa family) to show the continuity, the developments and transformations in Indian beliefs, rites and usages throughout the ages and, while bringing the past in its causal relations with the present, to indicate and suggest future trends and changes in these matters.†