Essay name: Vishnu Smriti (Study)
Author:
Minu Bhattacharjee
Affiliation: Gauhati University / Department of Sanskrit
This is an English study of the Vishnu-Smriti: an ancient Sanskrit Sutra dealing with the rules of various traditions and customs such as Dharmashastra, Caste, Monarchy, Law, Penances and Asceticism. The Vishnu-smriti in one hundred chapters is presented in the form of a dialogue between Vishnu and Prithvi (the goddess Earth).
Chapter 1 - Introduction
14 (of 24)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
Download the PDF file of the original publication
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
14
The Dharmasutras occupy a very important position
in Indian literature. The Dharmasutras contain informa-
tions about the geography and the flora and fauna of sacient
times, besides throwing light on the Indian society of remote
past.
past. The Dharmasutras deal with our domestic, social and
religious lives we find in these works, rules of conduct for
the people in general as well as those for the kingsn膿j
dharma) and matters of secular law (vyavah膩ra).
It is difficult to make a line of demarcation net-
ween the Dharmasutras and the Dharmasastras.
( The Dharmasutras are often designated as Dharma-
sastras. It may perhaps be said that all Dharma sutras are
Dharma sastras but all Dharmasastras are not Dharmasutras.
艣腻蝉迟谤补蝉
when the scholars speak of Dharmasastra they seem to mean
the metrical smrti works as opposed to smrti treatises
written in prose of s奴tra style or in mixed prose and verse.
The prose of the Dharmas奴tras differs from that of the
smrti digests. The prose of the Dharmasutras is composed
in terse aphoristic style, while the prose of the smrtis
is of the ordinary sanskrit. Max M眉ller states that al
the genuine metrical Dharmasastras are without exception,
nothing but mere modern texts of earlier sutra works".
43 43.
Max Muller, HASL, p. 70.
