Manu and Yajñavalkya

The legal literature of the Hindus is divisible into three classes: the Dharma-Sûtras or Aphorisms of Law of the different Schools, the Dharma Sástras or the Codes of Law attributed generally to names of sages well-known in sacerdotal history, and the Commentaries and Treatises [‘Digests’] by Hindu jurisprudentes which cover a period of about ten centuries. Amongst such Codes the position of the Codes of Manu and Yájñavalkya is pre-eminent. The former is supposed to be the foundation of the whole orthodox system of Hindu Law. Its authority is regarded as supreme by both the lay and legal literature of Hindu India, and as such it occupies a unique position in the legal history of the land. The latter is the practical legal system binding on the majority of the Hindus. Code Yájñavalkya has in effect, though not in name, superseded the Code of Manu. This work, perhaps the only one of authority, which makes a comparative and contrasting study of the two systems. The work incorporates the Tagore Law Lectures delivered by the author at the University of Calcutta.