Introduction
Starting from western indologists such as George Bühler and E Washburn Hopkins in the nineteenth century to Patrick Olivelle and Wendy Doniger of our own times, modern scholarship has had a long engagement with the text of Manusmrti. Though their engagement has been long and at many different levels, one thing which they are yet to come to terms with is the sheer size of the text as well as the wide range of the subject matter covered. in them. Modern scholarship has generally held that Manusmrti, like many other Hindu texts such as the Mahābhārata, was composed gradually over a long period of time. The predominant view is that such a composition was accomplished by collating and patching together various proverbial verses, moral sayings, and legal adages that were floating in the society over many centuries by anonymous authors, compilers, and copyists (Olivelle, Manu's Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Manava-Dharmaśāstra 2005). Hopkins (1885,268), for example, expressed suchaview way back in his 1885 publication titled 'On the Professed Quotations from Manu Found in the Mahabharata: I draw the conclusion that the Sästram [Manusmrtil was in great part collated between the time when the bulk of the epic [Mahābhārata) was composed and its final completion, that previous to its collation there had existed a vast number of sententious remarks, proverbial wisdom, rules of morality etc. which were ascribed, not to this treatise of Manu at all, but to the ancient hero Manu as a type of godly wisdom. These I conceive to have floated about in the mouths of the people, not brought together but all loosely quoted as laws or sayings of Manu and these sayings were afterwards welded into one with the laws of a particular text called the Mänavas a union natural enough, as the two bodies of law would then bear the same title, although the sect had no connection with Manu except in name...According to my theory, these Manu-verses found in the Manava treatise were simply caught up and drawn from the hearsay of the whole Brahman world, keeping their form after incorporation with the Mänavas' text (emphasis mine). Echoing a similar view almost a hundred years later in her Introduction to her 1991 translation of Manusmrti, Wendy Doniger (1991) writes: The Laws of Manu encompasses contradictions that may indeed be ultimately 'insoluble', but not necessarily irreconcilable, nor are its attempts to reconcile them necessarily 'frenzied'. Given the historical background, it is not surprising that Manu expresses a number of different views on many basic points. Different parts of the text were added at different periods (the portions dealing with legal cases are generally regarded as the latest) and, in the recension that we have, some topics are split up and treated in several different places, or in what seem to us to be the wrong places.
About The Book
Mamesmriti occupies a prominent place in Indian textual tradition as one of the authentic sources of dharma. However, contemporary engagement with the text has been wrought with prejudice and discomfort left in the wake of colonialism. The present work aims to address the gap in contemporary approach and facilitate a better understanding through a philosophical analysis of the first four verses of Manusmriti, shedding light on the object, purpose and relevance of dharma texts. Rather than reducing Manusmriti to a mere relic of the past through a historical study, the book locates the text within the larger Hindu epistemological, ontological, and theological worldview and extracts the eternal teachings embedded within it. The book addresses common misconceptions on topics such as the definition of dharma, the integrity and importance of Manusmriti, the notion of ritual competency, and the Hindu conception of varna. The book draws from the entire Hindu textual tradition spanning the Vedas, Upanishads, Smritis, Itihasa-Puranas, and the Gita. It references the works of renowned acharyas including Adi Shankaracharya, Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya, Vallabhacharya, Sayanacharya, Kumarila Bhatta, and Sri Aurobindo.
About The Author
Nithin Sridhar is a published author and speaker based in Mysuru. He serves as the Director of the INDICA Centre for Moksha Studies, an organisation dedicated to creating, curating, and promoting content on Hindu philosophy with a special focus on Vedanta. He has authored six books and one book chapter dealing with various aspects of Hindu philosophy and practice. His widely acclaimed books include Menstruation Across Cultures: A Historical Perspective, Samanya Dharma and Isopanisad: An English Commentary. He regularly contributes to various media platforms addressing topics ranging from politics and society to religion, culture, and philosophy. He also teaches courses on Indian Knowledge Systems at INDICA Courses.
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