The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c16.3

c16.3

Of the later Dharma Śāstras,¹ Nārada and Bṛihaspati are the most important. The former who flourished about the 6th century A.D. draws plentifully on Manu and other Dharma Śāstras and, on the whole, lacks originality. He is concerned primarily with law and touches but incidentally on administrative matters. It is remarkable that the high-sounding imperial or feudatory titles which came into vogue during the Gupta period and lasted for several centuries are not mentioned in Nârada or any other Dharma Śâstra. These adhere to the time-honoured expressions, Râja, Nripati, etc., and show that the pompous style had not originated when the Dharma Śâstra tradition was first chalked out. Nârada places the king and the Brâhmaṇa among the eight sacred objects. He would, like Gautama, exempt them from censure and corporal punishment in this world, "for these two sustain the visible world." The law which Nârada states pertains to the whole of human life. For example, if a man deserts a wife who is obedient and virtuous and who is the mother of male issue, he should be severely punished and brought to his duty by the king. He follows Manu, with his caste discriminations, in his rules on oaths and admission of evidence. He reduces ordeals to a precise system—a subject which is dealt with yet more thoroughly by Bṛihaspati. In the administration of justice, the assessors are given a more important position than in Manu. Nârada is fuller on procedure than his predecessors,¹ but he mostly agrees with Bṛihaspati.