The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s10.t3: Bālambhaṭṭa and Jagannātha

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s10.t3

Language: English

Bālambhaṭṭa and Jagannātha

c14.s10.t3.1

Two great *nibandha* writers of the eighteenth century were Bālambhaṭṭa the "Maratha" and Jagannātha the Bengali. Both of them came into contact with the British authorities.

Bālambhaṭṭa's commentary on the *Mitākṣarā* commentary of Yājnavalkya is a late eighteenth century work (c 1775). The author was a Deccani (Maratha) scholar, and a *paṇḍit* to Colebrooke (c 1800). He is said to have died in ripe old age about 1830. Bālambhaṭṭa (1740?-1830?) was therefore a senior contemporary of Rammohun (1772-1833).

c14.s10.t3.3

The commentary is curiously enough described in the colophons as being the work of his mother Lakṣmīdevī. There are several rulings in this treatise to endow women with rights of inheritance such as are denied by the masters, Yājnavalkya and Vijnāneśvara, themselves, and of course by others. Sisters, for instance, are authorized by Bālambhaṭṭa to succeed immediately after brothers in case a man dies without a male issue.

c14.s10.t3.4

The real Bengali contemporary of Bālambhaṭṭa in *smriti* is Jagannātha Tarkapanchānana (1695-1806), whose life is said to have covered something more than the entire eighteenth century at both ends. But his work, *Vivādabhangārṇava*, a digest, was prepared at the suggestion of the British Government under the inspiration of Jones. Parts of it were translated into English by Colebrooke (1797). He was held in great esteem by Rammohun.

Linked texts (1)

Yājñavalkyasmṛti — Yājñavalkya, Sanskrit