such and such torments for the wrongdoer or his forefathers, it should by no means be considered that the writer was always a fool to think so, but only that he found it necessary to say so.[1] I have made the motives of the writer a subject of examination, not only to enable us to get at the facts more accurately, but also to better understand the personality of the writer. The author of a book which enjoyed such universal prestige in India should not suffer condemnation without reason. The facts regarding some of the statements he makes may be gathered from evidence independent of our text and without taking any care to determine the meaning and motive of its statements, but in such a case we are very likely to, censure the author very unjustly as a producer of a work full of error, nonsense, contradiction, or fraud.
Place of the work in legal literature.—It has been well shown by Dr. Bühler, in his learned introduction to the translation of our text, that this text is a conversion of Mānava-dharma-sutra, which itself belonged to the Maitrāyaniya school of Black Yajns. The text of Mānava-dharma-sūtra is yet unavailable. The manuscripts of Grihya and Shrauta sūtras of this school are extant.
Dharma sütras date from 600 to 300 B. C. They were manuals of conduct belonging to different branches of Vedas. Mānava-dharma-sūtra mist have been a similar book, compiled at some time when other sutras
- ↑ Sometimes the great ignorance which Western writers display in interpreting the rules given in our text, becomes simply vexing, especially when they attribute false motives to the Indian priesthood.
