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Law Books in an Oral Culture:
The Indian Dharmasastras
LUDO ROCHER
ofSouthAsian Studies
W NormanBrownProfessor
ofPennsylvania
University
254
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LAW BOOKS IN AN ORAL CULTURE 255
British also learned that the dharmas'astra the Hindus most highly
respected was the one attributedto Manu, one of the several ancient
sages who are supposed to have composed-rather, "revealed"-treatises
on dharma.
One of the Englishmenwho studied Sanskritwas Sir WilliamJones,
since 1783 a judge in the Supreme Court of Judicaturein Calcutta.4In
1794 Jones indeed completed and published, in Calcutta, an English
translationofthe dharmasastra ofHinduLaw:
attributedto Manu: Institutes
or,theOrdinancesofMenu.
To be sure,Jones'stranslation,whichwas "printedbythe orderofGov-
ernment,"was intended,primarily, to servethe administrationofjustice.
Accordingto Jones,the judge,
itmustbe remembered, thatthoselaws areactuallyrevered,as thewordofthe
MostHigh,bynationsofgreatimportance to thepoliticaland commercialinter-
estsofEurope,
and particularly
bymillionsofHindusubjects,whosewelldirected
industrywould add largelyto the wealthof Britain,
and who ask no morein
returnthanprotection
fortheirpersonsand placesofabode,justicein theirtem-
poralconcerns,
indulgencetotheprejudicesoftheirold religion, and thebenefit
ofthoselaws,whichtheyhavebeen taughtto believesacred,and whichalone
theycan possiblycomprehend.5
Yet,at the same timeJones,the scholar,expressed an opinion thatis par-
ticularlyimportantin the contextofthisessay. Joneswas convincedthat,
by translatingManu, he not only had access to the laws to be applied
to Hindus in 1794,but learned fromtheManusmrti"thatsystemofduties,
religious and civil, and the law in all its branches, which the Hindus
firmlybelieve to have been promulgatedin the beginning of time by
MENU:'6
The Manusmrticontinued to attractattentionafter1794.7Yet, more
than a halfcenturywould pass beforethe publicationof the translation
suitrasand dharmasastras are also called smrtis,and the entirecorpus ofthese textsis referred
to as part of "the" smrti(literally,"memory"),i.e., a formof revelationinferioronly to the
higherformof revelationcontainedin the several Vedic texts(sruti).I must stressthatthis
entireessay deals with this body of textsonly,not with the immense commentariallitera-
ture on them, which developed at a latertime.
4 The factthatJones'sdecision to study Sanskritwas linked to his distrustof the Court
pandits is highlightedin a letterto Charles Chapman, writtenfromthe Bengal town of
Krishnagaron 28 September1785: "I am proceedingslowly,but surely,in thisretiredplace,
in the study of Sanscrit; forI can no longer bear to be at the mercyof our pundits, who
deal out Hindu law as theyplease, and make it at reasonable rateswhen theycannot find
it ready-made" (Garland Cannon, ed., The LettersofSir WilliamJones[Oxford:Clarendon
Press, 1970], 683-684).
5 Haughton's reprint(see note 7), 2: xxi-xxii.
6 Ibid., viii. Even though he was to be proved wrong on that account, Jonesbelieved
that the Manusmrtiwas composed as early as 1280 B.C.
7 Jones'stranslationwas reprinted,in England, in 1796,and translatedinto German in
1797.It was again reprinted,with an edition of the Sanskrittextand new annotations,by
Graves Chamney Haughton, in 1825. For these and later editions, see Garland Cannon,
Sir William A Bibliography
Jones: ofPrimary
andSecondary
Sources
(Amsterdam:
Benjamins,
1979), 32-34. The firstedition of Manu in France, by Auguste Loiseleur Deslongchamps,
appeared in 1830; his 1833 translationwas reprintedin 1840.
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256 LUDO ROCHER
8 YajiiavalkyadhannaNastram. Gesetzbuch.
Yajfnavalkya's SanskritundDeutsch,2 vols. (Berlin:
Dummler,1849), Vorrede to the translation,iii. Englishtranslationsof otherancientdharma
textsappeared more than one centuryafterHastings's Plan. Exceptfora preliminarytrans-
lation, frommanuscripts,of the NC7radasmrti by JuliusJolly(London: Trubner,1876), most
translationswere published, at Oxford,in Max Muller's The SacredBooksoftheEast: Apas-
tamba and Gautama (vol. 2, transl. Georg Buhler,1879), Vignu (vol. 7, transl.Jolly,1880),
Vasisthaand Baudhayana (vol. 14, transl.Buhler,1882),Manu (vol. 25, transl.Buhler,1886),
Narada and Brhaspati(vol. 33, transl.Jolly,1889). Many otherdharnagastras, some of them
known only fromquotations in the commentaries,stillremain untranslated.
9 Vorrede,iii.
10 "Zur Literaturder indischen Gesetzbucher,"in AlbrechtWeber's IndischeStudien
(Berlin: Dummler,1850), 1: 232-246 at 237.
11 A Historyof AncientSanskritLiterature (London: Williams & Norgate, 1859), 134.
There is a potentiallymisleadingstatementby Georg BiihlerconcerningMuller's views on
the versifieddharmna0stras. In connectionwith the dharnasuitras attributedto Apastamba,
Buhler noted: "Their discoveryenabled ProfessorMax Muller, nearlythirtyyears ago, to
dispose finallyof the Brahmanicallegend accordingto which Hindu societywas supposed
to be governed by the codes of ancient sages, compiled forthe express purpose of tying
down each individual to his station,and of strictlyregulatingeven the smallestacts of his
daily life" (SacredBooksof the East, 2: ix). What Muller really meant is that the versifled
sastras, which he considered to be more recentthan the prose sutras, should not be used
to reconstructlifein earlierVedic times,for"theylikewise admittedthe rules and customs
of a laterage" (A History,61). Muller did not say thatthe versifieddharma0astraswere unre-
liable sources as faras theirown times were concerned.
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LAW BOOKS IN AN ORAL CULTURE 257
12 Literarisches
Centralblatt1868, no. 30, 815-817; reprintedin IndischeStreifen 2 (1869),
404-408 at 408. Quoted with approval by Aurel Mayr, Das indischeErbrecht(Vienna:
Becksche Universitats-Buchhandlung, 1873), 2.
13 Daya-vibhaga.The Law of Inheritance (Madras: Higginbotham,1868), xiii. This is all
the more remarkablesince Burnell was a close friendof JamesH. Nelson whose-very
different-viewson the dharmasastras will be discussed later.
14 IndiensLiteraturund Culturin historischer Entwicklung(Leipzig: Haessel, 1887), 734.
15 Die kdnigliche
Gewaltnachdenaltindischen Rechtsbiuchern,den Dharmasfitrenund dlteren
Dharmas'stern(Leipzig: Haessel, 1895), 4.
16 "Der Gesellschaftskundeerschliessen sich seit dem neunten Jahrhundert v.Chr. im
Bereiche des indischen Rechts wahrhaftgeschichtlicheQuellen" (Das altindischeVolkstum
und seineBedeutung fiirdie Gesellschaftskunde
[Cologne: Bachem, 1899], 48). Dahlmann op-
posed the opinion of Senart; see below.
17 Hindu Law and Custom(Calcutta: GreaterIndia Society,1928) is an authorized trans-
lation of Jolly'sRecht und Sitte, einschliesslichder einheimischen Litteratur(Strassburg:
Trubner,1896). In it Jollyrefersto the siutrasand the sastrasas two "stages of Indian legal
literature"(2). In Kane's third volume (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute,
1946), which is more specificallydevoted to the legal aspects ofdharma,he says: "This work
in intentionand scope . . . concerns itselfwith pointingout what the law of the Smrtis
and writersof medieval digests was" (544).
18 Mayne'sTreatiseofHinduLaw and Usage,11thed. by N. ChandrasekharaAiyar(Madras:
Higginbotham,1950), 2.
19 Mulla: PrinciplesofHindu Law, 13th ed. by Sunderlal T. Desai (Bombay: N.M. Tri-
pathi, 1966,reprinted1970), 20.
20 C.H. Philips, ed., The Correspondence of Lord WilliamCavendishBentinck,Governor-
Generalof India, 1828-1835(Oxford UniversityPress, 1977), 1411, 1410. Macaulay wished
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258 LUDO ROCHER
to go even further:"I would strikeat the root of the bad systemwhich has hithertobeen
fosteredby us. I would at once stop the printingofArabicand Sanskritbooks" (ibid., 1412).
21 AncientLaw (London: Routledge), 14. On Maine, see J. Duncan M. Derrett,"Sir
Henry Maine and Law in India," TheJuridical Review1959,40-55. It is not clear to me whom
Maine means by "the best contemporaryorientalists."Accordingto Derrett(42) "much of
what turnsup in Maine" was supplied by JamesMill's "disastrous"HistoryofBritishIndia
(firstpublished in 1817). As far as I know Mill did not make any statementsimilar to
Maine's. Speaking about the "endless conceits"of Sanskritgrammaticalliterature,he said,
though, that"[i]t could not happen otherwisethan thatthe Hindus should, beyond other
nations, abound in those frivolousrefinementswhich are suited to the tasteof an uncivil-
ized people. A whole race of men were set apart and exempted fromthe ordinarycares
and labours of life,whom the pain of vacuityforcedupon some application of mind, and
who were under the necessity of maintainingtheirinfluenceamong the people, by the
creditof superiorlearning,and, ifnot by real knowledge,which is slowly and with much
difficulty attained,by artfulcontrivancesfordeceiving the people with the semblance of
it. This view of the situationof the Brahmans serves to explain many thingswhich modify
and colour Hindu society"(reprintfromthe 2d edition,1820 [Delhi: Associated Publishing
House, 1972], 1: 383-384). Mill also agreed with FrancisWilfordthat the king lists in the
Puranas "are the creationof the fancies of the writers"(ibid., 464).
22 "The Sacred Laws of the Hindus," in Dissertations on Early Law and Custom(New
York:Holt, 1886; reprintedNew York:Arno Press, 1975), 6. At least this much is clear,that
Jones,the "orientalist,"was also one of the principal betesnoiresof JamesMill.
23 On Nelson see J.D.M. Derrett,"J.H. Nelson: A ForgottenAdministrator-Historian
of India," in C.H. Philips, ed., HistoriansofIndia,Pakistanand Ceylon(London: OxfordUni-
versityPress, 1961), 354-372.
24 A View of the Hindu Law as Administered by the High Courtof Judicature at Madras
(Madras: Higginbotham,1877), 2.
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LAW BOOKS IN AN ORAL CULTURE 259
25 Ibid., 4.
26 Ibid., 4-5. JohnD. Mayne, whose TreatiseofHindu Law and Usagewas firstpublished
one year afterNelson's View(Madras: Higginbotham;London: Stevens and Haynes, 1878),
admitsthat"[i]n much thathe says I thoroughlyagree withhim."Yet,"it seems to me that
the influenceofBrahmanismupon even the Sanskritwritershas been greatlyexaggerated,
and thatthose parts of the Sanskritlaw which are of any practicalimportanceare mainly
based upon usage, which, in substance,thoughnot in detail,is common to boththe Aryan
and non-Aryantribes" (vii).
27 Annales du Musee Guimet. Bibliothequede vulgarisation,tome 10, 1896; second un-
changededition,witha new foreword, Paris:Geuthner,1927(page referencesare to thelatter).
28 Ibid., 11. Senart's view was criticizedby Hermann Oldenberg ("Zur Geschichtedes
indischen Kastenwesens,"Zeitschrift der deutschenmorgenldndischen Gesellschaft51 [1897]:
267-290 at 268), and by Dahlmann (Das altindischeVolkstum, 49-50: "Der ganze Charakter
des aus der Wirklichkeit des Lebens hervorgehendenRechtsschliesstaber jene bewusste
Falschung auf das entschiedensteaus").
29 "The Real Characterof Hindu Law," being the introduction to the edition of Balam-
bhatta Payagunda's Vyavahara-balambhattf (Banaras: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Book-depot,
1914), 8.
30 Ibid., 16.
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260 LUDO ROCHER
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LAW BOOKS IN AN ORAL CULTURE 261
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262 LUDO ROCHER
40 Rocher,"Bouchet's Letter,"18.
41 Ibid., 18-19.
42 Ibid., 19.
43 Ibid., 31.
44 Ibid., 21.
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LAW BOOKS IN AN ORAL CULTURE 263
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264 LUDO ROCHER
52 Rocher,"Bouchet's Letter,"20.
53 Transl. Jolly,introduction1.16.
54 Transl. Jolly1.17 I must note, though, thatthis verse is attestedin one later digest,
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LAW BOOKS IN AN ORAL CULTURE 265
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266 LUDO ROCHER
266
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LAW BOOKS IN AN ORAL CULTURE 267
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