Table Of ContentMANU'S CODE OF LAW
SOUTH ASIA RESEARCH
SERIES EDITOR
Patrick Olivelle
A Publication Series of
The University of Texas South Asia Institute
and
Oxford University Press
THE EARLY UPANISADS
Annotated Text and Translation
Patrick Olivelle
INDIAN EPIGRAPHY
A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit,
and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages
Richard Salomon
A DICTIONARY OF OLD MARATHI
S. G. Tulpule and Anne Feldhaus
DONORS, DEVOTEES, AND DAUGHTERS OF GOD
Temple Women in Medieval Tamilnadu
Leslie C. Orr
JÏMÛTAVAHANA' S DÄYABHÄGA
The Hindu Law of Inheritance in Bengal
Edited and Translated with an Introduction and Notes by
Ludo Rocher
A PORTRAIT OF THE HINDUS
Balthazar Solvyns and the European Image of India 1740-1824
Robert L. Hardgrave, Jr.
DIVINE TESTIMONY
A Study and Translation of the Rajasthani Oral Narrative of Devnarayan
Aditya Malik
MANU'S CODE OF LAW
A Critical Edition and Translation of the
Mänava-Dharmasästra
PATRICK OLIVELLE
With the editorial assistance of
Suman Olivelle
OXTORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
2005
OXPORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Oxford
New York
Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires
Cape Town Chennai
Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata
Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi
Sao Pauio Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto
Copyright © 2005 by The University of Texas Center for Asian Studies
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
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Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Manu (Lawgiver).
[Mänavadharmasästra
. English & Sanskirt]
Manu's code of law : a critical edition and translation of the Mänava-dharmasästr
a /
Patrick Olivelle ; with the editorial assistance of Suman Olivelle
p. cm. — (South Asia research)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-517146-4
1. Mänavadharmasästra
. 2. Hindu law—Sources. 3. Law—
India—Sources. 4. Law—India—History. I. Olivelle, Patrick.
II. Olivelle, Suman.
III. Title. IV Series: South Asia research (New York, N.Y.)
KNS127.3.A42004
294.5'94—dc22
2003070152
Preface
It was in 1991, soon after I joined the University of Texas, that I first thought about
preparing a critical edition of the Mänava-Dharmasästra.
I first envisaged it as a
collaborative project between me and my colleague Richard Lariviere, who had then
just completed the first-ever critical edition of the Näradasmrti. Little did I realize
that it would take a dozen years to complete the project, nor did I have any idea how
complex, labor-intensive, and time-consuming it would be. I am glad that I did not
have the foresight to know then what I know now in hindsight; if I did I would
never have undertaken it.
Over these past thirteen years many individuals and institutions have helped
me in numerous ways; without their help this work would never have been com-
pleted. At the end of this long road, I now have the pleasant task of expressing my
gratitude to all of them publicly. First and foremost, Suman Olivelle has been a full
partner in the editorial work for the past seven years. She collated most of the manu-
scripts, learning eight different scripts in the process; proofread the entire document
several times; and in general kept this complex project involving several collators
organized. Richard Lariviere took on major administrative responsibilities over the
years; although he could not collaborate directly in this edition, he has assisted this
project in ways too numerous to mention. Albrecht Wezler read several chapters of
my translation and gave valuable and insightful criticism and suggestions. During
the eight months that I spent at Harvard in 2000-01, Stephanie Jamison gave un-
stintingly of her time and knowledge and helped me work through obscure passages
of the text. During the same period Michael Witzel also assisted in a variety of ways
in coming to terms with this difficult text and in the dating of some manuscripts.
Several of my students helped me in collating the manuscripts: Don Davis, Robert
Fulton, Robert Goodding, and Mark McClish. Other students assisted the project in
numerous ways: Stephen Lindquist, Lisa Edwin, and Roger Conant. David Brick
helped with the Dharma Parallels, and Elliott MacGregor with the Pâd a Index. Ludo
Rocher, Anne Feldhaus, and Gregory Schopen read the introduction and gave valu-
able comments and suggestions. Wendy Doniger, Martha Selby, and Dominik Wu-
jastyk provided guidance especially in medical and gynecological matters. Officers
of the American Institute of Indian Studies were immensely helpful in obtaining
manuscripts: Pradeep Mehendiratta, Madhav Bhandare, Venugopala Rao, and Jag-
dish Yadav. Likewise, Karan Singh, Arlo Griffith, Cynthia Talbot, Ulrich Kragh,
v
vi
Preface
Anne Feldhaus, and V. L. Manjul obtained manuscripts from Jammu, Orissa, Ra-
jasthan, Calcutta, and Nagpur. Allen Thrasher was very helpful in giving me access
to the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. at the very beginning of this project,
and Mammata Misra helped with the reading of difficult passages of an Oriya
manuscript.
Many institutions assisted me in various ways. The Smithsonian Institution,
the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the University of Texas gave gen-
erous grants, without which this edition would never have been completed. The
Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in Pune obtained numerous manuscripts and
did a pilot collation of a few manuscripts under a grant from the Smithsonian. I want
to thank especially Dr. S. D. Laddu, who supervised that collation.
Finally, a big thank you to my daughter, Meera, who has endured this project
that has absorbed both her father and mother both during her high-school years and
through her four years of college! Thanks also to Cynthia Read and Theodore
Calderara of the Oxford University Press, New York, who, as usual, have supported
this project enthusiastically.
This is a long and complex volume with several scripts and fonts. I produced
the camera-ready copy, and even with the most careful attention and proofreading
there are bound to be errors for which I beg the indulgence of the readers.
Austin, Texas
P.O.
June, 2004
Contents
Abbreviations
ix
INTRODUCTION
3
I.
Authorship and Composition
5
II. Sources of Manu: The Traditions of dharma and artha
41
III. The Work of Redactors
50
IV. Nature and Purpose of the Treatise
62
V. Manu and the Later dharma Tradition
66
Note on the Translation
71
TRANSLATION
75
Editor's Outline
77
Chapter i
87
Chapter 2
94
Chapter 3
108
Chapter 4
124
Chapter 5
138
Chapter 6
148
Chapter 7
154
Chapter 8
167
Chapter 9
190
Chapter 10
208
Chapter 11
215
Chapter 12
230
Notes to the Translation
237
CRITICAL EDITION
351
Introduction to the Critical Edition
353
I. Editorial History and the Need for a Critical Edition
353
II. Sources for the Critical Edition
354
III. Genealogy of Manuscripts
370
IV.Constitution of the Texts
374
Note on the Critical Edition
381
vii
via
Contents
Chapter i
383
Chapter 2
403
Chapter 3
447
Chapter 4
504
Chapter 5
558
Chapter 6
594
Chapter 7
613
Chapter 8
659
Chapter 9
746
Chapter 10
810
Chapter 11
837
Chapter 12
889
Notes to the Critical Edition
914
Appendices
983
Appendix I: Fauna and Flora
985
Appendix II: Names of Gods, People, and Places
988
Appendix III: Ritual Vocabulary
993
Appendix IV: Weights, Measures, and Currency
997
Bibliography
999
Dharmasâstri c Parallels
1009
PädaInde x
1035
Index to the Translation
mi
Abbreviations
AB
Aitareya Brahmana
AÄ
Aitareya A ranyaka
Apa
Aparâditya , Aparârka com. on YDh
ÄpDh
Äpastamba Dharmasutra
ÄpGr
Äpastamba Grhyasütra
ÄpSr
Äpastamba Srautasütra
AS
Kautalya's Arthasästra
ÄsGr
Äsvaläyana Grhyasütra
ÄsSr
Äsvaläyana Srautasütra
AU
Aitareya Upanisad
AV
Atharvaveda
BauSr
Baudhäyana Srautasütra
BDh
Baudhäyana Dharmasütra
Bh
Bhäruc i
BhG
Bhagavad GJtä
BhP
Bhavisya Parana
B-R
Böhtling k and Roth, Sanskrit-Wörterbuch
BrSni
Brhaspati Smrti
BrU
Brhadäranyaka Upanisad
er. ap.
critical apparatus to the edition
ChU
Chandagya Upanisad
Dev
Devannabhatta, Smrticandrika
fh
first hand
GDh
Gautama Dharmasütra
Go
Govindaraja
GobhGr
Gobhila Grhyasütra
haplo
haplography
Har-A
Haradatta, com. on the ÄpDh
Har-G
Haradatta, com. on the GDh
Hem
Hemädri , Caturvargacintämani
JaiGr
Jaiminíya Grhyasütra
JAOS
Journal of the American Oriental Society
JB
Jaiminíya Brahmana
JIP
Journal of Indian Philosophy
Jmv
Jïmûtavâhana , Däyabhäga
KätSr
Kätyäyan
a Srautasütr a
KB
Käthaka Brähmana
ix
Abbreviations
x
KhGr
Khadira Grhyasütra
KS
Kâthaka Samhita
KSS
Kashi Sanskrit Series
Ku
KullDka
Kum
Kumärila , Tantravârttika
Laks
Laksmïdhara , Krtyakalpataru
ma
marginal addition
Mâdh
Mâdhava , Pârâsaramâdhavïya
MBh
Mahabharata
me
marginal correction
MDh
Mänava Dharmasastra
Me
Medhätith i
Mr
Manirama
MS
Maitmyaniya Samhita
M-W
Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary
Nä
Näräyan
a
Nd
Nandana
NSm
Närada Smrti
NT
Northern Transmission of the MDh
om
omission, omitted
PärGr
Päraskara Grhyasütra
P MS
Pürva Min tan i sä Sût r a
Räm
Rämäyana
Rc
Rämacandr a
Rn
Räghavänand
a
RV
Rgveda
Sab
Sahara's commentary on PMS
SânkhGr
Sânkhâyana
Grhyasütra
SB
Satapatha Brâhmana
sh
second hand
ST
Southern Transmission of the MDh
TB
Taittiñ ya Brâhmana
TS
Taittiñ ya Samhitâ
TU
Taittiñ ya Upanisad
VaDh
Vasistha Dharmasütra
VeS
Vedanta Sûtra
ViDh
Visnu-Darmasütra
Vij
Vijñ anesvara, Mitâksarâ com. on the YDh
Vis
Visvesvara, Bâlakndâ com. on the YDh
vl
variant reading
VkhGr
Vaikhânasa Grhyasütra
WZKM
Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Morgenlandes
WZKS
Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens
YDh
Yäjnavakya Dharmasästra
ZDMG
Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morganländischen Gessellschaft
MANU'SCODEOFLAW
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Introduction
The pre-eminent position of the Manava Dharmasastra (MDh) among the ancient
Indian treatises on dharma was clearly established by the 5th century CE and pos-
sibly as early as the 3rd. Compliments are most meaningful when they are given by
one's peers. Sometime toward the middle of the first millennium, Brhaspati, one of
Manu's successors and himself a composer of a Dharmasastra, pays Manu the ulti-
mate compliment: Manu is the authority, and any text contradicting Manu has no
validity.1 A couple of centuries earlier, Vätsyäyana
, the author of the Kamasutra
(1.1.5-10), refers to the origin of the MDh in words reminiscent of the first chapter
of the MDh. And Yâjnavalky a (1.4), another author of an early Dharmasastra,
places Manu at the head of his list of the authors of Dharmasästras.
The fame of Manu did not diminish through the next fifteen centuries right up
to the time when the administration of law was taken over by the colonial power
Britain. More commentaries—nine are extant—were written on the MDh than on
any other Dharmasastra. Even though in some areas of dharma—legal procedure
(vyavahära), for example—other texts, such as those of Närad a and Kätyäyana
, be-
came prominent, the MDh nevertheless remained pre-eminent throughout the long
and distinguished history of Dharmasastric literature during the Middle Ages. I had
to examine closely several prominent texts for citations from the MDh for this criti-
cal edition. It is clear that the MDh is by far the most cited Dharmasastric text in the
medieval Nibandhas.
The fame of Manu, however, had spread outside of India long before the arri-
val of the British. The first king in the Buddhist myth of origins codified in the
Aggañ ñ asutta2 is called Mahäsammata . The figure of this first king becomes identi-
fied with that of Manu in the Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia, especially
Burma and Thailand, where the Buddhistic law codes are ascribed to Manu.3
It is no surprise, then, that the first text on dharma that Sir William Jones, the
great pioneer of Sanskrit studies, chose to translate into English in 1794 was the
MDh. Its translation opened for the first time the world of non-European law and
religion to a western audience. Georg BUhler's translation and study, which has re-
mained the standard for over a century, appeared in the famous Oxford University
1. See below, pp. 69.
2. For a detailed study of this myth, see Steven Collins, "The Discourse on What is Pri-
mary," Journal of Indian Philosophy 21(1993): 301-93.
3. For discussions of this issue, see Lingat 1973, 266-72; Steven Collins and Andrew
Huxley, "The Post-Canonical Adventures of Mahäsammata, " Journal of Indian Philosophy
24(1996): 624-48; Steven Collins, "The Lion's Roar on the Wheel-turning King: A Response
to Andrew Huxley's "The Buddha and the Social Contract'," Ibid., 422-46.
3
4
Introduction
Press series. Sacred Books of the East, edited by Max Müller , in 1886. With the es-
tablishment of Indo-European linguistics and the discovery of the Sanskrit of the
Vedas as one of the earliest extant members of the family of languages to which
Greek, Latin, and most modern European languages belonged, there was excitement
even among non-Indologists about the cultural heritage of ancient India. During the
critical igth century, which set the agenda for much of scholarship on ancient India,
the MDh was for better or for worse the lens through which most European scholars
viewed India's past. Nietzsche, for example, regarded the MDh as a life-affirming
representation of the Aryan religion, in contrast to the nay-saying Buddhism.4 Pas-
sages from this text are found in every collection of readings given to students of
Indian culture, history, or religion in western universities.
Fame invites controversy, and in India itself during the 2oth century Manu be-
came a lightning rod for both the conservative elements of the Hindu tradition and
the liberal movements intent on alleviating the plight of women and low-caste and
outcaste individuals. For the latter, Manu became the symbol of oppression. His
verses were cited as the source of legitimation for such oppression, even though the
same or similar passages are found in other and older documents. The first confer-
ence by untouchables at Yeola under the leadership of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar in 1935,
in which it was resolved to reject Hinduism, passed a resolution with the title "To
the Untouchable Community: A New Message of a New Manu." Within a month a
group of young untouchable men gathered in Nasik to burn a copy of Manu cere-
monially.5 Even the prominent women's rights advocate, Madhu Kishwar, had to do
battle with Manu.6 Kishwar refers to the burning of copies of the MDh in the pre-
cincts of the Rajasthan High Court on March 25, 2000, and observes: "The
protesters believed that the ancient text is the defining document of Brahmanical
Hinduism, and also the key source of gender and caste oppression in India."
In spite of all the attention, including burning, that the MDh has received over
the past two centuries, the study of the text itself has been neglected. More heat, lit-
eral and metaphorical, has been generated than light. Until now, even a close ex-
amination of the numerous extant manuscripts of this work, manuscripts written in
nine scripts and spread all over the Indian subcontinent, has not been undertaken.
Without taking any position about the social value of the MDh, I would hope that
we would take the trouble to read the text with the attention it deserves before we
praise, condemn, or burn it. I also hope that this translation and study will be of
some help in understanding this controversial but important document from India's
past.
4. For a fine examination of the influence of India and the MDh on thinkers such as
Schegel, Schopenhauer, Hegel, Nietzsche, and others, see Wilhelm Halbfass, India and
Europe: An Essay in Understanding, Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988.
5. See Eleanor Zelliot, "The Psychological Dimension of the Buddhist Movement in
India," in Religion in South Asia: Religious Conversion and Revival Movements in South Asia
in Medieval and Modern Times, ed. G. A. Oddie, pp. 119-44 (Columbia, Missouri: South
Asia Books, 1977). The burning of the MDh was advocated also by other reform activists,
such as E. V. Ramasami: see M. R. Barnett, The Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South
India (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), p. 37.
6. "Manu and the Brits," Hinduism Today, January-February 2001, pp. 56-59.
