The Law Code of Viṣṇu: A Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Vaiṣṇava-Dharmaśāstra (Harvard Oriental Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674051394 ISBN 13: 9780674051393

Publisher: Harvard University Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, 2010

Synopsis

The Law Code of Viṣṇu (Vaiṣṇava-Dharmaśāstra) is one of the latest of the ancient Indian legal texts composed around the seventh century CE in Kashmir. Both because the Vaiṣṇava-Dharmaśāstra is the only Dharmaśāstra that can be geographically located and because it introduces some interesting and new elements into the discussion of Dharmaśāstric topics, this is a document of interest both to scholars of Indian legal literature and to cultural historians of India, especially of Kashmir. The new elements include the first Dharmaśāstric evidence for a wife burning herself at her husband’s cremation and the intrusion of devotional religion (bhakti) into Dharmaśāstras.

This volume contains a critical edition of the Sanskrit text based on fifteen manuscripts, an annotated English translation, and an introduction evaluating its textual history, its connections to previous Dharmaśāstras, its date and provenance, its structure and content, and the use made of it by later medieval writers.

About this title

About the Author

Patrick Olivelle is Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions at the University of Texas at Austin.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674051394
• ISBN 13: 9780674051393
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 560
• Editor: Olivelle Patrick