Vada in Theory and Practice: Studies in Debates, Dialogues and Discussions in Indian Intellectual Discourses c9.8

c9.8

Bādarāyaṇa’s postulations stand in conformity to Manu’s dictates. But as Bādarāyaṇa’s philosophical postulations are countered by the other philosophers like Bhāguri, *Mahābhārata* or *Gītā* within the orthodoxy; and more potentially by the onslaught of Buddhism and Jainism, counter-positions to the postulations of Manu continued to be envisaged. Unfortunately, during the regime of Warren Hastings in eighteenth century, Manu came to be regarded almost as the sole authority in respect of legal and social practices of the Hindu community. While Manu was followed in the larger part of the northern belt in India, there were other lawgivers for rest of the regions. Manu specifically suggests that he is standardizing the Dharmaśāstra for Āryāvarta — the land in the north of Vindhya mountain. There were other authorities in the area of Dharmaśāstra for Dakṣiṇāpatha (south), Magadha (in north-east), Gauḍa or Pāñcāla Deśas. Hundreds of *smṛtikāras* like Yājñavalkya, Parāśara, Kātyāyana, Śaṅkha and Likhita, Atri as well as the authors of *Nārada* and *Viṣṇusmṛti* provided constitutional framework for running the socio-religious and socio-political framework in diverse regions of the vast peninsula. Even though Manu ardently desired that the practices envisaged by the *agrajanmas* (brāhmaṇas) as codified by him in his law book, must be followed in the countries outside the Āryāvarta also — in the whole of the *pṛthivī* (Bhāratavarṣa), it was quite impossible that his wish would be realized. The *pṛthivī* or the vast country like India could not be governed by a single, rigid and unchanging constitution. Just as in the area of *darśana* (philosophy) so many systems and schools have been interacting and encountering with each other, and these interactions and encounters led to revisions and corrections in the systems, Dharmaśāstra offered wider and more potential field for oppositions and providing alternate systems. In all likelihood, even in the Āryāvarta, for which the codes of Manu were basically evolved, the other law books also prevailed.