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The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s10.t1: Law Scholars of the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth Centuries

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s10.t1

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Law Scholars of the Fourteenth and the Fifteenth Centuries

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Chaṇḍeśvara's *Smriti Ratnākara* is a nibandha or digest of law in seven sections, each called *Ratnākara*. The sections are named: (1) *Kritya* or ceremonial observances and festivities (*vratas*), (2) *Dāna* (gifts), (3) *Vyavahāra* (legal procedure), (4) *Śuddhi* (purification on birth, death etc.), (5) *Pūjā* (worship), (6) *Vivāda* (civil and criminal law), and (7) *Grihastha* (householder). Some of these *Ratnākaras* were composed in the first quarter of the fourteenth century (1314-24). His *Rājanīti Ratnākara* is an independent treatise. It may have been composed in the third quarter of the same century.

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Mādhava, the minister of Vijayanagara, is the author of a commentary on the *Parāśara Smriti*. His work on *Kālanirṇaya* also is famous. Both these treatises were composed in the middle of the fourteenth century (1335-1360).

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Viśveśvara's *Madanapārijāta* is a *smriti* work written for King Madanapāla of Kanauj (1360-70). His *Smriti Kaumudī* is a treatise specializing in the *adhikāra* (rights) and duties of the Sūdra. Two other works, ascribed to him, namely, the *Madana-mahārṇava* and *Tithinirṇayasāra* have become famous.

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A classic in the line of *bhāṣya* is Kulluka's commentary on Manu. The author is a Bengali but belongs to the Benares school by domicile. He draws substantially upon Medhātithi's commentary (c 850) but does not mention Jīmūtavāhana (c 1100-50). His dates are uncertain (c 1250-1425 ?).

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Vāchaspati's *Vivādachintāmaṇi* was written for Harinārāyaṇa of Mithilā towards the end of the fifteenth century.

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The *Sarasvatīvilāsa* was composed under orders of King Pratāparudra (1497-1539) of Orissa in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. The work is authoritative in Southern India. Towards the commencement of the work we come across the Kauṭalyan doctrine of *maṇḍala* ("geopolitical" sphere). It is discussed on the authority of Parāśara, Uśanas, Viṣṇu, Brihaspati, Viśālākṣa, Manu and others.

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During the latter half of the sixteenth century the *Toḍarānanda* was composed by Toḍaramalla (d. 1589), the celebrated Hindu commander and statesman of Akbar the Great. This encyclopaedic work, dealing as it does not only with law but with astronomy and medicine as well, is a few years anterior to but may be taken as contemporaneous with Abul Fazl's *Ain-i-Akbari* (1597).

Cites (2)