Rules and Remedies in Classical Indian Law: PDF Download

Author: Julia Leslie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789004095229
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 90

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Author: Robert Lingat
Publisher: South Asia Books
ISBN: 9788121506106
Category : Dharma
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Illustrations: 1 B/w Illustration Description: For many centuries the Hindu population of the Indian subcontinent has largely observed a legal system derived from the Dharmasastra, or science of righteousness, the indigenous holy law of the land. This legal system, the oldest in existence, is superior in depth and diversity even to Roman law; yet its development has been shaped neither by formal legislation nor by judicial precedent but instead by unique religious concepts that, prescribing rules of conduct to be observed in accordance with one's station in society, gradually acquired the force of law. The word dharma, which may be translated as duty, in effect expresses conformity with what Hindus regard as the natural order of things; hence its association with law. The Brahmanical Codes, then, may not have constituted legislation in the usual sense, but they did influence the development of formal law in India. Accordingly, students of comparative law and of legal history will find much of interest in M. Lingat's lucid analysis of this ancient system. He begins with a survey of the literature relating to dharma in order to emphasize its extent and influence on Indian thought. Appraising the spirit in which the Codes were composed and charting their relationship to custom on the one hand and to the royal will on the other, M. Lingat demonstrates (by reference to the commentatorial literature of the ninth century and after) how custom was preserved and the king's order recognized without compromising the supremacy of the law. He studies the precepts in and through which the notion of dharma is expressed, and investigates how and to what extent the rule of dharma acquired the force of law. The discussion concludes with an overview of the evolution of the classical Indian legal system as it interacted with other legal systems both in India, first under Muslim and then under British rule, and also in the Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia.

Author: Adam Bowles
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047422600
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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The Āpaddharmaparvan, 'the book on conduct in times of distress', is an important section of the great Sanskrit epic the Mahābhārata which, despite its significance for Mahābhārata studies and for the history of Indian social and political thought, has received little attention in scholarly literature. This book places the Āpaddharmaparvan within its literary and ideological contexts. In so doing it explores the development of a conception of brahmanic kingship morally justifiable within the terms of a debate largely set by various alternative social movements of the period. This book further explores the implications for our understanding of the Mahābhārata that follow from the Āpaddharmaparvan's presentation as a poetically cohesive unit within itself and within the wider parameters of the Mahābhārata.

Author: Patrick Olivelle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199771235
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1142

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Manu's Code of Law is one of the most important texts in the Sanskrit canon, indeed one of the most important surviving texts from any classical civilization. It paints an astoundingly detailed picture of ancient Indian life-covering everything from the constitution of the king's cabinet to the price of a ferry trip for a pregnant woman-and its doctrines have been central to Indian thought and practice for 2000 years. Despite its importance, however, until now no one has produced a critical edition of this text. As a result, for centuries scholars have been forced to accept clearly inferior editions of Sanskrit texts and to use those unreliable editions as the basis for constructing the history of classical India. In this volume, Patrick Olivelle has assembled the critical text of Manu, including a critical apparatus containing all the significant manuscript variants, along with a reliable and readable translation, copious explanatory notes, and a comprehensive introduction on the structure, content, and socio-political context of the treatise. The result is an outstanding scholarly achievement that will be an essential tool for any serious student of India.

Author: Patrick Olivelle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191007080
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Through pointed studies of important aspects and topics of dharma in Dharmaśāstra, this comprehensive collection shows that the history of Hinduism cannot be written without the history of Hindu law. Part One provides a concise overview of the literary genres in which Dharmasastra was written with attention to chronology and historical developments. This study divides the tradition into its two major historical periods—the origins and formation of the classical texts and the later genres of commentary and digest—in order to provide a thorough, but manageable overview of the textual bases of the tradition. Part Two presents descriptive and historical studies of all the major substantive topics of Dharmasastra. Each chapter offers readers with salest knowledge of the debates, transformations, and fluctcating importance of each topic. Indirectly, readers will also gain insight into the ethos or worldview of religious law in Hinduism, enabling them to get a feel for how dharma authors thought and why. Part Three contains brief studies of the impact and reception of Dharmasastra in other South Asian cultural and textual traditions. Finally, Part Four draws inspiration from "critical terms" in contemporary legal and religious studies to analyze Dharmasastra texts. Contributors offer interpretive views of Dharmasastra that start from hermeneutic and social concerns today.

Author: Nārada
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publ.
ISBN: 9788120818040
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 584

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This fascinating and profound book of ancient, Eastern esoteric wisdom backed by the latest discoveries and experiments of modern science treats of the health of soul by showing the relationship between soul and brain.This book is a cybernetic exploration of mind`s inner space leading to expanded cosmoelectronic consciousness. Having shown the differences between Eastern and Western thought-processes, Saher explains how the sages of the East have aquired that source of wisdom and bliss which our misguided youth seeks vainly in hallucinogenic drugs.

Author: Patrick Olivelle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198702604
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 572

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"The foundation of Hindu law is the voluminous textual tradition called Dharmaśāstra, the expert tradition on dharma. This book seeks to delineate the historical development of Dharmaśāstra, even though the tradition presented dharma as timeless and ahistorical. The volume establishes the importance of law for the history and study of Hinduism by providing interpretive descriptions of all the major topics of Hindu dharma according to this tradition. First, two broad introductions to the historical development of the textual sources of Hindu law suggest new ways to understand both the original texts (smṛti) and the later commentaries and digests. Next, groundbreaking research into the origin of the householder (gṛhastha), who is at the center of the Dharmaśāstric enterprise, provides new insights into both the origin of this genre and many of its topics, such as the āśrama system and married household life. The book devotes its central chapters to each of the major topics of Dharmaśāstra: epistemology of dharma, caste and social class, orders of life, rites of passage, Vedic student and graduate, marriage, children, inheritance, women, daily duties, food, gifting, funeral and ancestral offerings, impurity and purification, ascetic modes of life, dharma during emergencies, king, punishment, legal procedure, titles of law, penances, vows, pilgrimage, images, and temples. The final chapters then explore both the reception of Dharmaśāstra in other religious traditions, both Hindu and Buddhist, and the relevance of Dharmaśāstra to studies of critical concepts in religious studies—the body, emotions, material culture, subjectivity, animal studies, and vernacular culture."--

Author: Manu (Lawgiver)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0192802712
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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'Manu was seated, when the great seers came up to him: "Please, Lord, tell us the Laws of all the social classes, as well as of those born in between..."' The Law Code of Manu is the most authoritative and the best-known legal text of ancient India. Famous for two thousand years it still generates controversy, with Manu's verses being cited in support of the oppression of women and members of the lower castes. A seminal Hindu text, the Law Code isimportant for its classic description of so many social institutions that have come to be identified with Indian society. It deals with the relationships between social and ethnic groups, between men and women, the organization of the state and the judicial system, reincarnation, the workings ofkarma, and all aspects of the law.Patrick Olivelle's lucid translation is the first to be based on his critically edited text, and it incorporates the most recent scholarship on ancient Indian history, law, society, and religion.

Author: David J. Brick
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197664547
Category : Widows (Hindu law)
Languages : en
Pages : 329

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Book Description
During British colonial rule in India, the treatment of high-caste Hindu widows became the subject of great controversy. Such women were not permitted to remarry and were offered two options: a life of seclusion and rigorous asceticism or death on the funeral pyre of a deceased husband. Was this a modern development, or did it date from the classical period? In this book, David Brick offers an exhaustive history of the treatment and status of widows under classical Hindu law, or Dharmasastra as it is called in Sanskrit, which spanned approximately the third century BCE to the eighteenth-century CE. Under Dharmasastra, Hindu jurists treated at length and at times hotly debated four widow-related issues: widow remarriage and levirate, a widow's right to inherit her husband's estate, widow-asceticism, and sati. Each of the book's chapters examine these issues in depth, concluding with an appendix that addresses a widow's right to adopt a son-a fifth widow-related issue that became the topic of discussion in late Dharmasastra works and was a significant point of legal contentions during the colonial period. When read critically and historically, works of Dharmasastra provide a long and detailed record of the prevailing legal and social norms of high-caste Hindu society. Widows Under Hindu Law uses lengthy English translations of important passages from Hindu legal texts to present a largescale narrative of the treatment of widows under the Hindu legal tradition. This is an open access title. It is available to read and download as a free PDF version on the Oxford Academic platform. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International licence.

Author: Leela Prasad
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231139209
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Leela Prasad's riveting book presents everyday stories on subjects such as deities, ascetics, cats, and cooking along with stylized, publicly delivered ethical discourse, and shows that the study of oral narrative and performance is essential to ethical inquiry. Prasad builds on more than a decade of her ethnographic research in the famous Hindu pilgrimage town of Sringeri, Karnataka, in southwestern India, where for centuries a vibrant local culture has flourished alongside a tradition of monastic authority. Oral narratives and the seeing-and-doing orientations that are part of everyday life compel the question: How do individuals imagine the normative, and negotiate and express it, when normative sources are many and diverging? Moral persuasiveness, Prasad suggests, is intimately tied to the aesthetics of narration, and imagination plays a vital role in shaping how people create, refute, or relate to "text," "moral authority," and "community." Lived understandings of ethics keep notions of text and practice in flux and raise questions about the constitution of "theory" itself. Prasad's innovative use of ethnography, poetics, philosophy of language, and narrative and performance studies demonstrates how the moral self, with a capacity for artistic expression, is dynamic and gendered, with a historical presence and a political agency.