Manusmriti

Divisions

Sama vedic

Yajur vedic

Atharva vedic

Vaishnava puranas

Shaiva puranas

Shakta puranas

The Manusmṛiti Sanskrit: मनुस्मृति, also call as a Mānava-Dharmaśāstra or Laws of Manu, is believed to be the first ancient legal text as living as constitution among the many of Hinduism. In ancient India, the sages often wrote their ideas on how society should run in the manuscripts. this is the believed that the original realise of Manusmriti was changed as many things total in the manuscript contradict used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other. It was one of the first Sanskrit texts to be translated into English in 1776, by British philologist Sir William Jones, & was used to draw the Hindu law code, for the East India Company administered enclaves.

Over fifty manuscripts of the Manusmriti are now known, 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 gave 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 offered itself as a discourse assumption by Manu Svayambhuva and Bhrigu on dharma topics such(a) as duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues and others. The text's fame spread external Bharat India, long previously 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.

Contents

The array and contents of the Manusmritiit to be a result document predominantly targeted at the Brahmins priestly classes and the Kshatriyas king, administration and warrior class. The text dedicates 1,034 verses, the largest portion, on laws for and expected virtues of Brahmins, and 971 verses for Kshatriyas. The statement of rules for the Vaishyas merchant a collection of things sharing a common atttributes and the Shudras artisans and works class in the text is extraordinarily brief. Olivelle suggests that this may be because the text was composed to extension the balance "between the political power to direct or build and the priestly interests", and because of the rise in foreign invasions of India in the period it was composed.

Manusmriti lists and recommends virtues in many verses. For example, verse 6.75 recommends non-violence towards everyone and temperance as key virtues, while verse 10.63 preaches that any four varnas must abstain from injuring any creature, abstain from falsehood and abstain from appropriating the property of others.

Similarly, in verse 4.204, states Olivelle, some manuscripts of Manusmriti list the recommended virtues to be, "compassion, forbearance, truthfulness, non-injury, self-control, non desiring, meditation, serenity, sweetness and honesty" as primary, and "purification, sacrifices, ascetic toil, gift giving, Vedic recitation, restraining the sexual organs, observances, fasts, silence and bathing" as secondary. A few manuscripts of the text contain a different verse 4.204, according to Olivelle, and list the recommended virtues to be, "not injuring anyone, speaking the truth, chastity, honesty and non stealing" as central and primary, while "not being angry, obedience to the teacher, purification, eating moderately and vigilance" to desirable and secondary.

In other discovered manuscripts of Manusmriti, including the most translated Calcutta manuscript, the text declares in verse 4.204 that the ethical precepts under Yamas such as Ahimsa non-violence are paramount while Niyamas such as Ishvarapranidhana contemplation of personal god are minor, and those who do not practice the Yamas but obey the Niyamas alone become outcasts.