1. Of the Text-books, varying in number, according to different authorities, from eighteen to thirty-six, and more,([1]) the little that is known, in point of history, will be found in the successive Prefaces, by Mr. Colebrooke, to his translations of the Digest, and two treatises on Inheritance; in the latter of which, in particular, their respective value is accurately weighed and ascertained. By Parasara, author of one of these books, (referring to the Hindu division; of the world into four ages,) are assigned, as appropriate to the Crita Yuga, or first age, the Institutes of Menu; to the Trita, or second, the ordinances oi Gautama; to the Dwapara, or third, Sancha and Lichita; and, to the Cali, or fourth, (the present sinful age, as it is deemed,) his (Parasara's) own ordinances. A text-book of authority, written for, and known to be applicable to the present age, could not but be of peculiar value ; but, it having been observed, that these text-books consist each of three distinct parts, it happens that, in Parasara's, the second, or Vyavahara Canda, (which must have comprised, his legal Institutes,) is entirely wanting : so that a professed commentary on this Smriti, that will be more particularly noticed, founds itself, in this respect, upon nothing belonging exclusively to Parasara^ beyond a verse extracted from the Achara^ or first Canda^ purporting merely, " that the
- ↑ See Preface to-Digest, p. viii. et seq. The. following list is according to Yajnyawalcya.—Menu; Atri; Vishnu; Harita; Yajnyawalcya; Ushanas ; Angiras; Yama; Apastamba; Sanverta; Catyayana; Vrihaspati; Parasara; Vyasa; Sancha and Lichita, (who were brothers, and wrote each a Smriti separately, and another jointly : the three being since considered as one work); Dacsha; Gautama; Satatapa; and Vasishta. Parasara, whose name appears in the above list, enumerates also twenty select authors; but, instead of Sanverta, Vrihaspati, and Vyasa, he gives the names of Casyapa, Bhrigu, and Prachetas.
