Aspects of the Social and Political System of Manusmrti

A brief indication of the plan of the lectures may he offered. In the first lecture, (“Manu and his rivals”) the supposed rivalry between Arthašàstra and Dharmašàstra is examined. A number of problems that have to be solved by students of Manusmrti today before they can grasp his position and teaching form the subject of the second discourse. The third lecture attempts to describe the background against which the teachings of Manu and the Hindu social system have to be viewed in order to obtain a correct picture of them. The next two lectures deal with the basic ideas of varna and àšrama, and their bearing on life. In the last lecture some salient features of the political system and ideas of ancient India, that may be gathered from Manusmrti, are outlined. A social and political setup that has embraced a vast continental area cannot be dealt with even cursorily in a few lectures. The present attempt is there-fore designed less to convey information than to furnish a stimulus for study of the great social classic. “Manu’s administrative ideas are highly rational. Manu’s administrative principle does not suggest that they were intended to be a code of law for any practical group, inhabiting in a specific geographical area though Manu Dharmasastra relates to Hindu society and polity. That Manusmriti occupies a place of highest authority in the Indian polity is manifested in the application of the injunctions of Manusmriti in various branches of Indian administration”. — K. Sreeranjani Subba Rao, The Indian Journal of Political Science.