Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-m8qmq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-16T03:05:42.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

FROM LAW TO DHARMA: STATE LAW AND SACRED DUTY IN ANCIENT INDIA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2019

Mark McClish
Mark McClish*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, Northwestern University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The legal treatises of ancient India, called Dharmaśāstras, are often read as records of the initial emergence of law from religion in South Asia. The Dharmaśāstras teach the dharma, or “sacred duty,” of different members of society. It is one of the dharmas of the king to adjudicate disputes that come before his courts, and it is widely accepted that a need to articulate the king's dharma led the composers of the Dharmaśāstras over time to fashion rules for state courts, a body of law called vyavahāra. Scholars such as Henry Sumner Maine and Max Weber saw in the Dharmaśāstras evidence of the disentanglement and rationalization of law, respectively. A close examination of our sources, however, shows that the law of royal courts emerged not within the Dharmaśāstra tradition, but within an adjacent and decidedly more secular tradition of statecraft. It was gradually absorbed into Dharmaśāstra texts, where it was reconfigured as sacred duty and its historical origins were obscured. This article argues that the early history of state law in India is best described, therefore, not as a transition from dharma to law, but as a transition from law to dharma.

Keywords

vyavahāralawnītistatecraftHindu lawdharmaśāstraancient India
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , December 2019 , pp. 284 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

PRIMARY SOURCES

Acharya, Narayana Ram, ed. Yājñavalkya-smṛti of Yogīśvara Yājñavalkya with the commentary Mitākṣarā of Vijñāneśvara, Notes, Variant Readings, etc. 5th ed. Bombay: Nirnayasagara Press, 1949.Google Scholar
Bakre, Mahādeva Gangādhar, ed. Grihya-Sūtra by Paraskar, with Five Commentaries of Karka Upādhyāya, Jayarām, Harihar, Gadādhar, and Vishvanath. 2nd ed. Bombay: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1982.Google Scholar
Bodewitz, H. W., trans. The Jyotiṣṭoma Ritual: Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa I, 66-364. Leiden: Brill, 1990.Google Scholar
Bolling, George Melville and von Negelein, Julius, eds. The Pariśiṣṭas of the Atharvaveda. Leipzig: Harrassowitz, 1909–1910.Google Scholar
Caland, Wilhelm, ed. The Baudhāyana Śrauta Sūtra Belonging to the Taittirīya Saṃhitā, vol. 2. Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 1907.Google Scholar
Caland, Wilhelm, ed. and trans. Das Jaiminiya-Brāhmaṇa in Auswahl. Amsterdam: Johannes Müller, 1919.Google Scholar
Caland, Wilhelm. “Eine dritte Mitteilung über das Vādhūlasūtra.” Acta Orientalia, no. 4 (1926): 1–41.Google Scholar
Caland, Wilhelm. “Eine vierte Mitteilung über das Vādhūlasūtra.” Acta Orientalia, no. 6 (1928): 97–241.Google Scholar
Chaubey, Braj Bihari, ed. Vādhūla-Śrautasūtram. Hoshiarpur: Katyayan Vaidik Sahitya Prakashan, 1993.Google Scholar
Chintamani, T. R., ed. The Kauṣītaka Gṛhyasūtras, with the Commentary of Bhavavrata. Madras: University of Madras, 1944.Google Scholar
Horner, I. B., trans. The Book of the Discipline (Vinaya-Piṭaka). 5 vols. London: Pāli Text Society, 1938–1966.Google Scholar
Hultzsch, Eugen. The Inscriptions of Asoka, New Edition. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925.Google Scholar
Jayaswal, K. P. “The Hathigumpha Inscription of Kharavela.” Epigraphia Indica, no. 20 (1929–30): 71–89.Google Scholar
Kangle, R. P., ed. The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra, part I: A Critical Edition with a Glossary, 2nd ed. Bombay: University of Bombay, 1969.Google Scholar
Kangle, R. P., trans. The Kauṭilīya Arthaśāstra, part I: An English Translation with Critical and Explanatory Notes, 2nd ed. Bombay: University of Bombay, 1972.Google Scholar
Katre, Sumitra M., trans. Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.Google Scholar
Kielhorn, F., ed. The Vyâkaraṇa-Mahâbhâṣya of Patañjali. 2nd ed. 3 vols. Bombay: Government Central Book Depot, 1892–1909.Google Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick, trans. The Dharmasūtras of Āpastamba, Gautama, Baudhāyana, and Vasiṣṭha: Sanskrit Editions and Annotated Translations. Sources of Indian Law. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000.Google Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick, trans. King, Governance, and Law in Ancient India: Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivelle, Patrick, ed. and trans. Manu's Code of Law: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Oldenberg, Hermann, ed. Çānkhāyanagṛihyam. In Indische Studien, Beiträge für die Kunde des indischen Alterhums, herausgegeben von Albrecht Weber, Band 15 (1878): 1–166.Google Scholar
Oldenberg, Hermann, trans. The Gṛihya-Sūtras: Rules of Vedic Domestic Ceremonies. Part 1. Sacred Books of the East 29. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1886.Google Scholar
Oldenberg, Hermann, ed. The Vinaya Piṭakaṃ, 5 vols. London: Williams and Norgate, 1879–1883.Google Scholar
Vira, Raghu, ed. Jaiminīya Brāhmaṇa of the Sāma Veda, Book 1. Lahore: Arya Bharati Press, 1937.Google Scholar
Vira, Raghu, and Chandra, Lokesh, eds. Jaiminiya Brahmana of the Samaveda, Book 3. Nagpur: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1954.Google Scholar
Salomons, H. J. W., ed. Bhāradvājagṛhyasūtram: Het hindoesche huisritueel volgens de school van Bhāradvāja. Diss. Leiden: Brill, 1913.Google Scholar
Sarup, Lakshman, ed. and trans. The Nighaṇṭu and the Nirukta: The Oldest Indian Treatise on Etymology, Philology, and Semantics. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1967.Google Scholar
von Schroeder, Leopold, ed. Kâthakam: Die Samhita der Katha-Çâkhâ, erstes Buch. Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1900.Google Scholar
Stenzler, Adolf Friedrich, ed. Indische Hausregeln I: Âçvalâyana, Part 1: Text. Abhandlungen der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, III Band, no. 4. Leipzig: Kommissionsverlag. F. A. Brockhaus, 1864.Google Scholar
Weber, Albrecht, ed. The Çrautasūtra of Kâtyâyana, with Extracts from the Commentaries of Karka and Yajñikadeva. 2 vols. Berlin: Ferd. Dümmler's Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1859.Google Scholar