The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c14.3

c14.3

The Smritis or Dharma Śāstras occupy a most important place in the Hindu literature on regulation of life,—on religion, ritual, domestic and social life, law, custom and polity. Unfor-tunately, it is impossible to ascertain their exact dates. Their origin perplexed even ancient writers. For instance, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa remarks in his Tantra Vārtika that owing to the scattering of Śākhās, human error or carelessness and the variety of topics, the beginnings of Smritis could not be traced. The opinions of modern scholars ranged over an extraordinarily long period. Sir William Jones, for instance, referred Manu to 1200 B.C. Later, some scholars brought him down to the twelfth or thirteenth century A.D. It is now generally agreed that the Smritis assumed their present shape at various epochs in the first millenium of the Christain Era. R. G Bhandarkar placed them in the Kuṣân-Gupta period, that is, between the middle of the second and the end of the fifth century A.D.¹ Hopkins refers Manu to the commencement of or even before the Christian era, while he assigns Viṣṇu to the third, Yâjñavalkya to the fourth and Nârada to the fifth century A.D.² Jolly thinks that Manu cannot be later than the second or third century A.D. while Viṣṇu cannot be earlier than the third. He would place Yâjñavalkya in the fourth and Nârada about the commencement of the sixth century while referring Brihaspati and Kâtyâyana to the sixth or seventh century A.D. Bühler, after a searching examination, came to the conclusion that Manusmriti existed, pretty much as we know it, in the second century A.D.³ Manu's references to the Kambojas, Yavanas and Śâkas bar an earlier date for the work as a whole.