Bhāruci
Bhāruci's commentary (
Laws of Manu, is part of the corpus of Dharmaśāstra texts available to us today. It is the oldest commentary on Manu that we know of,[1] and is one of the sources used by Medhātithi
, another major commentator on the Manu Smṛti.
Dating and historical context
Very little is known about the date or historical context in which Bhāruci was writing, but
P. V. Kane argues that it cannot have been written after 1050 CE because Vijñāneśvara, the author of the Mitākṣarā, a famous commentary on the Yājñavalkya Smṛti, mentions Bhāruci's commentary in his writing.[2] Viśvarūpa, another commentator on the Yājñavalka Smṛti, also uses Bhāruci as a source. Patrick Olivelle places Bhāruci in the 8th century CE,[3] while J. Duncan M. Derrett places him between 600 and 650 CE.[3] There are two known authors named Bhāruci placed in about the same period of time, one who wrote on Dharmaśāstra and one who was a jurist, and Kane posits that they were in fact the same person because it is unlikely that there were two famous writers with the same name writing at the same time.[4]
Topics
The main content of Bhāruci's commentary deals with the duties of a king, particularly regarding whether or not the king can be a source of
ashramas (stages of man's life)."[6]
Notes
- OCLC 660299.
- ^ Kane, P. V., History of Dharmaśāstra, (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1975), Volume I, Part I, 566.
- ^ a b Olivelle, Patrick, "Dharmaśāstra: A Literary History", 29.
- ^ Kane, P. V., History of Dharmaśāstra, (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1975), Volume I, Part I, 567.
- Derrett, J. Duncan M., "Bhāruci on the Royal Regulative Power in India", Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 84, No. 4, (1964), 392.
- ^ Kane, P. V., History of Dharmaśāstra, (Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1975), Volume I, Part I, 569–570.