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 5: Recapitulation
1 (of 10)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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CHAPTER V
Recapitulation ;
It is observed that the Visnusutra or Visnusmrti
or Vaisnavadharmasastra bears certain peculiar qualities
which are not found in other dharmasastra works.
The dharmasutras are composed in terse aphoristic
style which sometimes requires expositions in the form of
commentaries. The Apastamba dharmasutra and such works are
good examples of this type of work. The language of this
type of work is archaic to some extent. On the other hand
the smrti or dharmasastra works like the Manusa峁僪it膩,
Yajnavalkyasm峁泃i etc. are composed in classical poetry
style easily intelligible to readers to a great extent.
The Visnusmrti is composed both in aphoristic and versified
form.
We have seen innumerable verses from the Manusa峁僪it膩,
Y膩j帽avalkyasmrti and grimadbhagavadg墨t膩 are repeated adver-
batim in the visnusmrti (the verses are reproduced in ch. II
of this dissertation).
Sometimes what happens that some
verses of these works are broken into s奴tra form in the
Visnusmrti.
