Manu Smriti

Book excerpt: The Manusmṛiti is an ancient legal text of Hindus. It was one of the first Sanskrit texts to have been translated into English in 1776, by Sir William Jones, and was used to formulate the Hindu law by the British colonial government.Over fifty manuscripts of the Manusmriti are found till, but the earliest discovered, most translated and presumed authentic version since the 18th century has been the "Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) manuscript with Kulluka Bhatta commentary". Modern scholarship states this presumed authenticity is false, and the various manuscripts of Manusmriti discovered in India are inconsistent with each other, and within themselves, raising concerns of its authenticity, insertions and interpolations made into the text in later times. The metrical text is in Sanskrit, is variously dated to be from the 2nd century BCE to 3rd century CE, and it presents itself as a discourse given by Manu (Svayambhuva) and Bhrigu on dharma topics such as duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and others. The text's fame spread outside Bharat (India), long before the colonial era. The medieval era Buddhistic law of Myanmar and Thailand are also ascribed to Manu, and the text influenced past Hindu kingdoms in Cambodia and Indonesia.Manusmriti is also called the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra or Laws of Manu.The modern version of the text has been subdivided into twelve Adhyayas (chapters), but the original text had no such division. The text covers different topics, and is unique among ancient Indian texts in using "transitional verses" to mark the end of one subject and the start of the next. The text can be broadly divided into four, each of different length, and each further divided into subsections:1.Creation of the world2.Source of dharma3.The dharma of the four social classes4.Law of karma, rebirth and final liberationThe text is composed in metric Shlokas (verses), in the form of a dialogue between an exalted teacher and disciples who are eager to learn about the various aspects of dharma. The first 58 verses are attributed by the text to Manu, while the remaining more than two thousand verses are attributed to his student Bhrigu.Manusmriti is usually traslated as "code of Manu", but it literally means "reflections of Manu". It presents itself as a document that compiles and organises the code of conduct for human society.It came into being roughly 1,800 years ago, around the period that saw yagna-based Vedic Hinduism transform into temple-based Puranic Hinduism.Mansumriti is the law book of Hindus, something like the Constitution of India. Manusmriti or Manava-dharma-shastra, is a smriti (that which is recollected): the work of man, subject to change with time (kala), place (sthan) and participants (patra).Hindus believe that to make life meaningful (purusha-artha), we have to pursue four goals simultaneously: be socially responsible (dharma), generate and distribute wealth (artha), indulge in pleasure (kama) and don't get to attached to anything (moksha).The origin of Manusmriti is attributed to Brahma, the creator, who passes it on to the first human, Manu, who passes it on to the first teacher, Bhrigu, who passes it on to other sages. Since its composition, Manusmriti was seen as the foremost dharma-shastra, overshadowing all other law books. Manusmriti aligns with the Vedic view that society is composed of four kinds of communities - those who know the Vedas (brahmins), those who govern the land (kshatriyas), those who trade (vaishyas) and those who serve (shudra).Manusmriti was one of the many dharmashastras, and it was not much in use as India came to be increasingly governed by Muslim rulers, such as the Sultans of Delhi and the Deccan and Bengal. When the British East India Company took over the governance of India from the Mughals, they compiled law for managing their subjects.For Muslims, they accepted the then prevalent Sharia, but for Hindus, they had nothing.